
A CHILD'S BIBLE, 



Being the Incidents and Narratives of Sacred 

V Scriptures, Simply Told. 

i. 
i 

I PART I.— FROM THE CREATION TO THE DEATH OF JOSEPH. 
h PART II. — FROM THE BIRTH OF MOSES TO THE ENTRANCE 
OF THE PEOPLE INTO CANAAN. 






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i^.vi* r^ I ^iiicT 11 



EDWARD N. CALISCH, 

' ■ ■ " , \ |. ^^ Richmonrl, ^a 



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^"..■^"^:^'^'^-.w:^ ^^'^IKE 





LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



§i}n{u iqtt^nglt !f o. 

Shelf '.©.5^ 5/ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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4 



A CHILD'S BIBLE, 



Being the Incidents and Narratives of Sacred 
Scriptures, Simply Told. 



Part I.— from the creation to the death of j oseph 

PART II.— FROM THE BIRTH OF MOSES TO THE ENTRANCE 
OF THE PEOPLE INTO CANAAN. ' -C^;;^, 

ll_SEP 20. i^y^r 

I^JS^RlT^ I anci II 

/ ' 

EDWARD N. CALISCH, 

(Rabbi of Cong. Beth Ahaba, Richmond, Va.) 



RICHMOND, VA.: 

EzEKiEL & Bass, Printers, 

1894. 



-^ 



65 



6\ 



fl* 



1 



4 



Copyrighted, Augtist 1894, by Edward N. Calisch, in the office of 
the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



V 



A CHILD'S BIBLE. 



CHAPTER I 



I.— THE CREATION. 

Now, my young readers, I want you to think 
backwards as far as you can. Think back, oh, 
ever so long ago ; think back of the time before 
you were born, before the city in which you live 
was built, long before this country was found out 
by Columbus, long before Columbus lived ; think 
back as far as you can. Long before this time you 
are thinking of there was a time w^hen there was 
nothing at all; no countries, no trees, no streams, 
no fish, no birds, no animals, no sun, no moon, no 
stars, nothing, except God. Then God made this 
earth as it is ; not in one day, but in six days. At 
first the earth was without any shape or form, 
and everything was dark. Then on the first day 
God said : ''Let there be light ;'' and the light came. 
On the second day He separated the earth from 
the heaven, and made the earth for itself with 
the splendid blue sky of heaven above it ; and so 
came heaven and earth. On the third day He sep- 
arated the water and the land. The dry land He 
called the earth, and the water He called the sea. 
Then He made all the beautiful things that are on 



the earth, the fine trees that give such nice shade 
and fruits, the pretty flowers with their sweet smell, 
and all the grains and vegetables that give us 
bread and food. On the fourth day He made the 
big, bright, glorious sun that shines on and gives 
us light by day, and the pale, silver moon, with 
the thousands of laughing, twinkling stars, to keep 
the night from being altogether black. On the 
fifth day He filled the air with the birds and their 
pleasant songs ; all kinds of birds, and also on the 
same day all the fish in the sea. On the sixth day 
came the cattle and all kinds of animals ; and last 
of all — man. On the seventh da^^ God stopped 
His work and rested, showing us that w^e, too, 
must rest on the seventh day, and do no work at 

all. o 

II. ADAM AND EVE. 
The first man was called Adam, and he was 
made in the ^likeness of God. But when God saw 
that Adam was alone, all by himself. He said : ^^ It 
is not good for man to be alone. '^ So He put 
Adam into a deep sleep, and took one of his ribs 
and made a woman, whose name was Eve. Adam 
and Eve were the first people; and God put them 
into a beautiful garden, called The Garden of Eden, 
In the garden were all the good things that you 

^When we say man is created in the likeness or image of God, 
it is not meant in body or figure, for God has no form or figure. 
He is a spirit of love, mercy, justice and truth. And man is 
made in the likeness of God, because he too is partly spirit, 
and can be loving, just, merciful and truthful. We must culti- 
vate these virtues, because then we become more and more 
God-like. 



can think of— the sweetest fruits, the nicest birds, 
and the finest trees and streams. And Adam and 
Eve could take whatever they wanted from any- 
thing, from any tree, except one, from which God 
told them they should not eat anything. 

Now, the snake was the most sly of all the ani- 
mals, and he coaxed Eve to eat. One day Eve 
was standing near the tree and thci snake was 
there, and he asked Eve to eat some of the fruit of 
the tree. Eve told him that God told her ^^ not to 
eatof the tree nor to tonch it.'^ The snake pushed 
her against the tree and said : ** You have touched 
it, you might just as well eat of it.'' Then Eve 
ate some and gave some to Adam to eat, so they 
did not obey God. 

And that is just the way it is with us now. It 
is the first step that is wrong. If your mamma 
tells you not to go out on the street and play, you 
will say : ^* Well, I will only go as far as the gate.'' 
And when you get to the gate, the boy on the 
other side will coax you out, and you will disobey 
you mamma just as Adam and Eve did God. 

God was angry that they had done what He 
told them not to do, and drove them out of the 
beautiful garden, and told them they must now 
work for their bread. The snake was also 
punished. o 

III. CAIN AN© ABEL. 

Adam and Eve had two sons, named Cain and 
Abel. Cain was older than Abel, but he was wild- 
er than his brother. He became a farmer; Abel 



was a shepherd, and loved to take care of the 
sheep and the lambs. 

One day Cain and Abel brought each a present 
to offer np to God, to show their thanks for God's 
goodness. Abel brought his ^^ offering/' for so the 
Bible calls the present, from the best among his 
flocks, while Cain brought his from the fruits of 
the ground. God liked the offering of Abel, and 
took it, while He did not like Cain's. It was not 
because Abel's was better than Cain's, for every- 
thing belongs to God, and He gives us everything 
we have, and what we bring makes no difference 
to Him. But the reason was the feeling with 
which it was brought. Abel brought his with all 
his heart, but Cain was very unwilHng, and would 
not have brought any if he had not seen x\bel 
doing it. 

Cain was now angry because God took Abel's 
offering, and not his, and he was full of envy 
against Abel. And he went away and sat down 
to think over it, and the more he thought the 
more angry he v^as with his brother, instead of 
putting the blame where it really was, with him- 
self. While he was in such a humor Abel happened 
to come w^here he Avas, and Cain, full of envy, 
rose up and killed his bi^other. 

When Cain saw his brother dead, and then 
thought what a terrible thing he had done, he ran 
away and tried to hide. But God called him and 
said: ^' Cain, where is thy brother Abel?" And 
Cain tried to deceive God and he said : ^^ Am I mv 



brother's keeper?'' meaning to say: ^'How do I 
know where my brother is ? " 

Poor Cain, how tmwise he was, trying to hide 
from God, who sees and knows everything. And 
some of ns to-day try to do the same thing when 
we do wrong, though we do not do such a terrible 
thing as to kill anybody. Yet when you do wrong 
jou try to hide it from your papa or mamma; but 
you cannot hide it from God, who will find you out 
even in the darkest coal-box in the cellar, or in the 
oldest trunk in the garret. He knows your sin 
just as he knew Cain's sin. He punished Cain, 
drove him from home, from his father and mother, 
and made him ^wander a long, long time, troubled 
by dreams of his murdered brother, till at last he 
stopped in a place called Nod. 

God then gave another son to Eve, and she called 
him Seth. o 

IV. NOAH. 

A long time after Cain had sinned and had been 
punished, about 1,600 years after God had made 
the world, there were very many people on the 
earth. But they were all wicked and bad, and did 
everything that was v^rong, except one man, 
named Noah. Noah was a good and righteous 
man, and walked in the path that was pleasing to 
God. On account of the wickedness of the people, 
God said He would punish them and destroy 
them all by drowning, for He was going to bring 
a great flood over all the earth. But Noah and 
his three sons, Ham, Shem and Japhet, He saved, 



6 

because Noah was a righteons man, and loved and 
obeyed God. But God, being, as He is, so good 
and kind, told Noah to bnild a ship, called an ark, 
and tell the people for what the ark was being 
built, and that if they would be sorry for their 
sins and would do better, God would not destroy 
them. But the people only laughed at Noah, and 
kept on sinning, and Noah kept on building the 
ark. 

When the ark was finished God told Noah and 
his three sons. Ham, Shem and Japhet, and their 
wives and children, to go into the ark and close up 
everything. Noah also took in the ark with him 
all kinds of animals and birds, two of every kind 
that lived. 

After Noah and his family, and all the animals 
and birds were in the ark, God ** opened the win- 
dows of heaven,^' and caused it to rain, and the 
rain poured down for forty days and forty nights. 
And the w^ater began to rise in the rivers over 
their banks, and the people went on the hills ; the 
water came upon the hills, and the people went on 
the mountains ; the water came slowly but yet 
surely to the mountains, and the people climbed 
up the trees on the mountain-tops; the water 
came up in the trees also, and the people could go 
no other place, and the water covered everything, 
and the people were all drowned. 

But Noah, the God-fearing man, and his family, 
were in the ark, which rested safely on. the surface 
of the water. For one hundred and fiftv davs 



was this so, and for one hundred and fifty days 
there was nothing to be seen bnt sky and water, 
and the ark on the water. At the end of that time 
the water began to go down. First Noah sent 
forth a raven from the ark ; then he sent out a 
dove; but the dove flew to and fro and could not 
find a resting-place, so it came back. After seven 
days he sent the dove out again, and the dove 
came back with an oHve leaf in its bill, and Noah 
knew that the earth was again beginning to be 
seen. He waited seven more days, and then went 
out of the ark with his family. The ark had 
rested on the top of a mountain, called Ararat. 
As soon as Noah came out of the ark he built an 
altar to God and thanked Him for having saved 
his life. And God was pleased that Noah was 
thankful, and He promised him He would not 
destroy the people by water again. Just then the 
beautiful rainbow came out and God said : ^^Let 
this be a sign of my promise. As long as you see 
this rainbow you will know that I will not bring 
a flood on the land again.'' 

Now, when it rains, and you, my little readers, 
see the sun shine after the rain, and the rainbow 
with its many beautiful colors is seen, you will 
know that God has kept His promise, and you 
may be sure He always will. 

But a long time after Noah, when the people 
were many again in the land, they forgot God and 
His promise, and tried to build a tower that 
would reach to heaven, and on which they could 



8 

go if another flood came. And God, in order to 
pnnish them, mixed up all their languages. So 
they could not understand each other, and had to 
stop building, and all separate and go to different 
countries. The tower was called Babel, which 
means '^ confusion,'^ because God confused all 
their languages. 



CHAPTER II 



V. ABRAM. 

If you have carefully read the last chapter you 
will remember that we learned about Noah and 
the flood, and the ark on Mount Ararat, and of 
the tower of Babel. Long after that time, about 
400 years after Noah, there lived a man named 
Terah. Terah had three sons, Abram, Nahor and 
Haran. Haran died and left a son called Lot, and 
Abram took Lot into his own house and cared for 
him. In those times people did not worship God 
as they should, but had ugly figures of stone and 
blocks of wood to which they bowed down, and 
which they served. Terah, the father of Abram, 
also worshipped these idols, these images of wood 
and stone, but Abram did not. Terah even went 
so far as to make and sell these idols, and had a 
shop full of all kinds of figures. But Abram feared 
and loved the one trtie God in heaven, and so tried 
to teach the people around him. But he and his 
father could not agree, because Terah was an 



idolator, that ivS, he worshipped these stone and 
wooden idols. One day Abram heard the voice of 
God telHng him to leave his father's house and go 
to the land of Canaan. So Abram took Lot, his 
nephew, and Sarai, his wife, and went to Canaan. 
Abram and Lot were both rich, had many cattle 
and sheep ; for cattle and sheep were all the riches 
they had then, thc}^ had no gold and silver money 
and paper monc}^ like we have. Abram and Lot 
had so many cattle and sheep that they had no 
I'oom for pasture, and one day there was a quarrel 
between the herdsmen of Abram and the herdsmen 
of Lot. Abram loved peace, and not wishing the 
quarrel to go on, he went to Lot and said: ^'We 
must separate; you ma^' have your choice. If 
you wish to go to the right, I will go to the left, 
or if you choose to go to the left I will go to the 
right/' Lot looked around, and saw that the plain 
of the Jordan was good land, and he went there 
and settled in the city of Sodom; and Abram 
stayed in Canaan. It was very good of Abram 
thus to separate without a quarrel, and we would 
get along a great deal better if we would act as 
Abram did. Some time after this. Lot was taken 
captive by some kings who were making war, and 
carried away, he, and all his property. When 
Abram heard this he took three hundred and 
eighteen of .his men, and went and brought Lot 
back again. On his way back, the King of Sodom 
went to meet him and thanked him for bringing 
back his men. He also offered to reward Abram 



10 

for his goodness, but Abram said: ^^ No, not as 
much as a shoelace wnll I take ; only what belongs 
to me and my men/' 



VI. THE DESTRlJCTION OF SODOM. 

Abram at this time had one son, whose name 
was Ishmael, and whose mother was Hagar. 
Sarai, Abram's wife, had no son, and God ap- 
peared nnto Abram, and promised him that he 
would become the father of a great race, and that 
by him the earth would be blessed. God also 
changed his name, saying: ''Thy name shall no 
longer be Abram, but Abraham, and thy wife's 
name shall no longer be Sarai, but Sarah. 

Not long after this Abraham was sitting at the 
door of his tent, and he saw three men coming. 
Being a very kind man, he rose and ran to meet 
them, and asked them to come into his house and 
take some food and drink. They did so, and 
Abraham went to prepare the food. When he 
came back, one of them spoke to him and said 
that when he came back again, God would give 
Sarah a son whose name should be Isaac. They 
then rose and went away, and two of the mes- 
sengers, for they were really messengers of God, 
went on to Sodom to warn Lot, that the city 
was going to be destroyed because the people in 
it were so very wicked. When Abraham heard 
that Sodom was to be destroyed, he prayed to 
God that if there were fifty good, righteous people 
in the city, God should not destroy it. But there 



f 



11 



were not fifty good people. Then Abraham pray- 
ed for forty, thirty, ten, righteous people, and God 
promised to save the city for the sake of the ten 
righteous people that should be found in it. But 
alas! there were not even ten good persons, and 
God was going to destro^^ the city, and another 
wicked city near it called Gomorrah. But Lot was 
a good man, so God, who never punishes unjustly, 
sent his messengers to save Lot. They came to 
the cit3^, and Lot, who met them, asked them to 
come into his house, and they went in. But the 
wicked and bad people of the city came to Lot's 
house to ask who the strangers were. They came 
around the house and began calling out, and Lot 
went to the door and asked them not to act so 
wickedly. And then the men of the city pressed 
up around Lot even near unto the door; and the 
messengers took Lot in the house. The men of 
the city then rushed to the door, and God struck 
all of them with blindness for their wickedness. 
Then the messengers told Lot to pack up his 
goods and flee from the city, for God was going 
to destroy the city with fire and brimstone, and 
they told him not to look back at the city to see 
it being burnt. Then early in the morning Lot 
fled to the mountains with his people, but his wife 
did not obey God's message and looked back, 
and was turned into a pillar of salt. 



12 

Vri. ISllMAEL AND HA6AR. 

Abraham was still living in Canaan with his 
wife, Sarah, and with Ishmael and Isaac. Ish- 
mael was a very wild boy and was always outside 
and seldom at home. Sarah was afraid that if 
the two boys kept together, Isaac would also be- 
come wild by being so much with Ishmael. So 
she told Abraham to send Ishmael and his mother, 
Hagar, away from the house. Abraham did not 
want to do so at first, but not wishing to have a 
quarrel in the house, and God also having told 
him to do as Sarah said, he called Hagar and Ish- 
mael to him. He gave them some food and drink 
and told them to go away. And Hagar took the 
food and the skin bottles of water (for they had 
no glass then) and went into the desert. She 
wandered in the desert and her stock of water 
gave out, and Ishmael became sick, even unto dy- 
ing. Hagar could not see her boy die, her mother's 
heart could not stand it, and she put the child 
under the shadow of a bush, and turned aside to 
pray to God. Think of that scene, my dear 
readers ; the hot sands of the desert, the burning 
eastern sun, the dying child under the bush, and 
the sorrowing mother on her knees before her God. 
And Hagar j)rayed to God with all her soul; and, 
it seemed in direct answer to her prayer, she heard 
a sound as of falling water, and she turned and 
looked, and lo ! she saw a tiny stream of water 
trickling from a rock. Joyfully she sprang to it, 
filled her bottle with its clear water and saved 



13 

her child. Ishmael got better, grew up to be a 

man, a mighty hunter, and the father of a great 

race. 

o 

VIII. THE BINDING OF ISAAC. 

Isaac meanwhile grew up to be a fine and 
splendid boy, and Abraham loved him with all 
his father^s heart. One day, when Isaac was 
about thirteen years old, God appeared to Abra- 
ham and spoke to him as follows : ^* Take thy son 
whom thou lovest, thy son Isaac, and offer him up 
as a burnt-offering. '^ When Abraham heard this 
command of God he was very, very sad. Isaac 
was his only child, and he loved him so dearly, 
and thus to lose him was too much. But his love 
for God was even greater, so with a heavy heart 
he went to obey God's bidding. He took the 
wood and bound it upon a beast of burden, took 
two servants and went to the mountain. When 
he came near the mountain, he told his servants 
to wait for him, and he and Isaac would go alone. 
As they two were going along, Isaac said, 
*' Father, I seethe knife for the offering and the 
wood for the offering, but where is the lamb you 
are going to offer?'' Ah, little did Isaac know he 
was to be the lamb, or how his simple words must 
have cut the heart of his father. But Abraham 
only answered, *^ God will provide a lamb for 
Himself," and they went on. They went up the 
mountain and Abraham built the altar, arranged 
the wood upon it, and bound Isaac and placed 



14 

him upon the wood. Then he raised the knife to 
strike it into the heart of his boy, when he heard 
a voice calHng, ^'Abraham, Abraham/' And he 
answered, ''Here I am.'' And the voice said, 
*' Lay not thy hand upon the boy, nor harm him." 
And Abraham looked around and he saw a ram 
caught in the bushes by its horns, and he took the 
ram and offered it up instead of his son. Then 
God said, ''Now I know thou lovest and fearest 
Me, because thou didst not keep back from Me 
thy son, thine only son. And I will bless thee and 
thy possessions, and I will make thy descendants 
like the stars in heaven and sand upon the sea- 
shore for number." And Abraham and Isaac 
went back in joy and peace to their home. 

o 

IX. DEATH OF SARAH— MARRIAGE OF 

ISAAC. 

Sarah was now getting old, and she died at the 
age of 127 years. Abraham went to the land 
of Hittites, and as a burial-ground bought the 
Cave of Machpelah. Ephron, the man who 
owned that piece of land, wanted to give it to him, 
but Abraham would not take it as a present, but 
paid the price for it, as he wanted to be entirely 
independent. He buried Sarah in the Cave of 
Machpelah. 

Abraham, too, was now getting old, and he 
wanted to see Isaac married and settled down. 
As he was afraid Isaac might marry one of the 
daughters of the worshippers of idols, of the 






15 



people around him, he took his servant EHezer and 
made him promise he would get a maiden of his own 
people for his son Isaac. Eliezer promised, and he 
took some camels and he ^went to the city of 
Nahor. When he came near the city he saw^ the 
young girls drawing water from the well. And he 
asked God to help him choose a good wife for his 
master Isaac, and he took a sign that when he 
wotild go up and ask for a drink of water for him- 
self, and the girl would of her own accord offer to 
give his camels water, he would know she was the 
right one. For he knew that if a girl had the kind 
heart to take care of the poor dumb animals, she 
would be a good wife. When he came near the 
well, he asked one of the maidens for drink, and 
she gave him a drink and asked, ^^Shall I give your 
camels water also ?" And Eliezer was glad, for he 
knew she was the one to be Isaac's wife. He 
asked her name, and she said she was Rebekah, 
the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Nahor, the 
brother of Abraham. And Eliezer went with her 
to her father's house, and the next morning she 
went back with him and became the wife of Isaac. 
Some years after this Abraham died, when he was 
175 years old, and he was buried in the Cave of 
Machpelah, beside Sarah, his wife. 



■o- 



16 

CHAPTER III 



X. ESAlJ AN© JACOB- 

You remember, my children, how Eliezer got a 
wife for Isaac, how he found her out by her kind 
heart, by her caring for the poor, tired camels, 
then how Rebekah (often spelled Rebecca), went 
home with Eliezer and became the wife of Isaac. 
Esau and Jacob were the names of the two boys 
w^ho were children of Isaac and Rebekah. Esau 
was a little older than Jacob, but there was just 
the same difference in their habits as there was in 
the characters of Cain and Abel, but Esau did not 
do such a terrible thing as Cain did. You remem- 
ber Cain, how wild he was, always outside, al- 
ways hunting, always in the woods, never at 
home; just so was Esau, and he went out in the 
w^oods so much that he became almost like a wild 
man, and had hair on his body just like the wild 
beasts that he hunted. But just as Abel staid at 
home and cared for the flocks and sheep, so did 
Jacob. But Isaac loved Esau the better, and Esau 
was his favorite, while Jacob was the favorite of 
Rebekah. Esau, being the elder, had the birth- 
right, you know what that is, don't you? Well, 
it means that, being the eldest born, he had 
the right to his father's property when his father 
died. You know that it is so nowadays, for in- 
stance, when a king dies, his eldest son goes to the 
throne after him; that is his birthright. And 
Esau had this birthright, but he did not keep it 



17 

the way he ought to. The birthright does not 
only mean the right to the property; it has other 
meanings, the oldest son, getting the largest 
share of the property, must also get the largest 
share of troubles. He mast be the helper and 
guide of his younger brothers and sisters ; he 
should look after them and care for them, be kind 
to them, love and protect them in all cases; he 
should so act toward them that they look to him 
as a second father, for, indeed, if it has pleased 
God to call the father away, to whom does the 
sorrowing wife and mother look for aid? up to 
whom do the fatherless children look, but to the 
oldest son, the one who has the birthright? All 
this is meant by the birthright, and all you who 
may be the possessors of the birthright and may 
read my words, are you sure you keep your trust 
the way it should be kept? Esau did not, and he 
therefore did not deserve to have it, and he lost it. 
One day Esau came home from hunting and was 
very tired and hungry. Jacob was near the house 
eating some pottage. Esau said, ^^Give me some 
pottage, for I am hungry. '^ Jacob answered, ^*Sell 
me your birthright and I will give it to you.'^ 
And Esau said, ''Of what use is my birthright to 
me?" and he sold it for the pottage. So Esau de- 
spised the birthright, and therefore lost it. 



XI. THE BLESSING. 

Isaac, being a good man and worshipping God, 
led a peaceful and happy life, and God blessed 



18 



him with plenty and with much riches. But he 
was growing old, and indeed, was almost blind, 
being so old. So, wishing to give his son his last 
blessing, before he died, (for a father's dying bles- 
sing is a sacred, precious thing), he called his 
favorite and eldest-born Esau to him. He told 
him to prepare for him a nice dish of venison (deer 
meat) and then he would bless him, and Esau 
went out to get it. Rebekah overheard this, and 
she wanted Jacob to get the blessing. She called 
him to her and told him to kill a sheep and she 
would prepare it for him, and he should take it 
unto his father and get the blessing. 

Jacob did as Rebekah told him, and then put a 
skin over his shoulders, A^ath the hairy side out, 
and went into Isaac. * When he came in Isaac was 
somewhat surprised that he had come so quickly, 
and he said: ''Who art thou?'' and Jacob an- 
swered: ''I am Esau, thy first-born." Isaac felt 
him then, and said: ''The voice is the voice of 
Jacob, but the hands are the hands'of Esau." Then 
he took the meat and blessed his son, saying that 
God would give to him of the dews of heaven, and 
that nations would serve him, and he closed with 
the words : *' Cursed be any one that curseth thee, 
and blessed be those that bless thee." Jacob then 
went out. After a little while Esau came in to get 
his father's last blessing, and Isaac then knew how 
Jacob had deceived him, and Esau was very angry 
and said in his heart he would slay his brother. 

Rebekah knew that Esau, when he found out 



19 

what Jacob had done, would want to hurt him 
and told Jacob to leave his father's house and go 
away for fear of his brother. Oh, what fearful 
results of deceiving! Here was the poor, old, 
blind father filled with grief because of the action 
of his son, the mother, compelled to send her best- 
beloved away from home, anxious because of his 
danger in wandering alone in the wilderness, the 
one brother full of anger and vowing to slay his 
brother, and the other brother fleeing away, away 
from father, mother, home, from all, out, out in 
the wilderness, fearing and fleeing for his life, and 
all this caused by deception. 



XII. JACOB'S DREAM AND lIlS 
MARRIAGE. 

Jacob journeyed on, on, all day till night came 
on and found him out in the field, all alone, ^no 
house, no tent, no man, no being in sight. He 
took a stone for his pillow and lay down in the 
open field to rest. As he lay there, no roof above 
his head, except God's blue sky, he saw the sun 
sink in the west and go down out of sight, he saw 
the stars come out, one by one, and the weary 
wanderer's thoughts turned toward his God. 
Jacob was sorry for the wrong he had commit- 
ted, and resolved hereafter not to trust to himself 
but to put his faith in God. Thus thinking of his 
Creator, he sank peacefully to sleep beneath the 
open sky, dotted with the millions of twinkling, 



20 



laughing, stars. In his sleep he had a dream, a 
vision. He saw the sky part and he looked into 
the realms of heaven, and there he sa^v, in his 
dream, the eternal God seated on His throne of 
glory, and a ladder stretched from heaven down 
to earth, and countless angels were going up and 
down on the ladder — and God spoke to him and 
said: '' Behold, I am w4th thee, fear not, where 
thon goest I will keep thee.'' And Jacob awoke 
out of his dream, and took the stone which had 
been his pillow, and set it up as an altar to God, 
and went on his way glad and happy. 

Soon he came to a place where there was a well, 
and there was a large stone over the well. And 
Rachel, the daughter of Laban, who was the 
brother of Rebekah, came near to water the flocks 
of her father. Then Jacob rolled away the stone 
of the well for her, and told her he was Jacob, her 
cousin, the son of Rebekah, who was the sister of 
Laban. And Jacob went to the house of Laban, 
and became Laban's shepherd, and served him for 
some time. Then Laban said: ^'It is not right 
thou shouldst work for me for naught, tell me what 
thy wages shall be." Jacob said, ''I will work 
seven years if thou wilt give me thy daughter 
Rachel as a wife." Laban promised. After seven 
years, when Jacob came to claim Rachel, Laban 
gave him Leah instead. Jacob said, '' What is this 
thou hast done ? Thou didst promise me Rachel and 
thou dost give me Leah." Then Laban said, ''It is 
the custom in this country that the elder daughter 



21 

be married first. Therefore I gave you Leah first. 
You work seven more years and you shall have 
Rachel.'^ And Jacob did so, and Rachel also 
became his wife. Jacob had now served fourteen 
3^ears when Laban told him that from now on all 
the spotted and speckled sheep and cattle should 
be his wages. And Jacob agreed and worked six 
more years for Laban and all the speckled cattle 
and sheep were his wages, 

o 

XIII. JACOB'S RETURN. 

After he had thus been with Laban tw^enty years, 
the desire came to him to see his father and mother 
and his brother, Esau. He saw also, because God 
had greatly increased his cattle, that Laban was 
no longer friendly to him. So one day, when 
Laban had gone away to shear the sheep, Jacob 
took his wives and children and put them on 
camels, and took all his speckled cattle and went 
away. When Laban came back and heard that 
Jacob w^as gone, he immediately went after him 
and pursued him for seven days, when he* came 
upon him. But God in a vision told him not to 
harm Jacob, so when he came to Jacob he said: 
'^ Why did you go away without letting me say 
good-bye ?" Then he and Jacob made a covenant, 
an agreement to befriends, and he went back home, 
while Jacob continued on toward his father^s 
house. 

Soon he came, and he thought bitterly of the 
time when twenty years ago he had left that home 



22 

an outcast and a wanderer, with a brother's vow 
against his life. He knew not if Esau was still 
angry, but he took his best cattle and sheep and sent 
them as a present to Esau, telling the messengers 
that they should tell Esau that he was coming on 
behind. Soon the messengers came back saying 
that Esau was coming with four hundred men. 
And Jacob was afraid, and divided his men so as 
to protect himself and children as well as possible. 
But Esau was no longer angry, and he and Jacob 
met each other as brothers should, and kissed and 
wept with one another. Esau then returned to 
his house and Jacob went to a place called Suc- 
coth and remained there. Soon after this Isaac 
died, full of years and happy to see his sons to- 
gether again. 

Jacob lived in Succoth and then went to the 
land of Canaan, to which, you remember, Abra- 
ham had gone, and which God promised him 
should belong to him and his descendants. He 
had twelve sons and one daughter, whose name 
was Dinah. His sons' names are Reuben, Simeon, 
Levi, Judah, Isachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, 
Gad, Asher, Joseph and Benjamin. Reuben was 
the eldest and Benjamin the youngest. But Jacob 
loved Joseph more than all the rest, and next to 
Joseph he loved Benjamin, because they two were 
the only sons of Rachel, whom he loved, and 
whom he had first sought for a wife. And in his 
love for Joseph he made him a coat of many differ- 
ent colors. 



23 

CHAPTER IV 



XIV. JOSEPH'S DREAMS. 

In our last chapter we learned about the love 
that Jacob bore for Joseph ; also, that t6 show his 
love, he made him a coat of many colors. But, 
alas ! Joseph^s life, because of that coat, was not 
as brilliant as were its many hues. When Joseph's 
brothers saw that he was more beloved by their 
father than the3^ all were, they became very jeal- 
ous and envious. They hated Joseph because his 
father loved him. And what added to their jeal- 
ously and increased their envy were two dreams 
that Joseph had, and which he was foolish enough 
to tell and boast about. The first dream he had 
was as follows: he dreamed that he and his 
brothers were binding sheaves^ in the field, and 
that his sheaf arose and stood up straight, and 
the sheaves of his brothers bowed down and 
humbled themselves before his sheaf. When 
Joseph told his dream to his brothers thej^ were 
very angry. They said to him : '^ Art thou indeed 
going to have power us, and rule us ? '' And they 
hated him the more for his dreams and his words. 

But Joseph would not take warning that they 
hated him for his dream, and said: *^ Behold, I 
have dreamed another dream. I dreamed that 
the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed 

* Sheaves are the bmidles into which the wheat is bound 
when it is cut. 



24 

down to me." His father even now scolded him, 
saying: ^* Shall I and thy mother come and bow 
down to thee to the earth?" And his brothers 
envied him more and more. 



XV. THE SEJ-LIN6 OF JOSEPH. 

One day, not long after the occurrence of these 
dreams, the brothers of Joseph w^ere feeding the 
flocks at a place somewhat distant from the house 
of Jacob. Jacob sent Joseph to call his brothers 
home. And Joseph went tow^ard Schechem, and 
there a man told him his brothers were in the 
valle}^ of Dothan. His brothers saw him coming 
at a distance, and as soon as the^- saw him their 
anger against him began to rise. Thc}^ said to 
each other : " Lo ! the dreamer cometh." And the 
more they spoke the more envious and the angrier 
the^" became, till some one said they should slay 
him and cast him into a pit ; and their envy and 
anger had gone so far that they all agreed to slay 
their brother! — and only because he was more 
beloved than they; Oh, my young readers, be- 
ware of envy. It carries you beyond your power, 
and causes you to do things of which you w^ill 
forever after repent. 

But Reuben, the oldest of the sons of Jacob, was 
more reasonable than his brothers, and he said : 
''No, shed no blood; cast him into the pit, but 
shed no blood." (You see, Reuben wanted to 
come afterward and save Joseph, after the 
brothers had gone away.) So they took from him 



25 

his coat of many colors, and cast him into the pit, 
*'and the pit was empty, there was no water in 
it/^ Scarcely had they done this, when they looked 
and saw some merchants — some Ishmaelitish 
merchants, who, with their camels, were going 
down to Egypt. Then Judah said: '' What good 
is it to us to slay our brother ? Rather let us sell 
him to these merchants/^ And forthwith they 
sold poor Joseph to the Ishmaelitish merchants, 
who carried him away. 

Some time after Reuben came to the pit to take 
Joseph out, and he was not there, and he rent his 
clothes and wept, and went to his brothers, saying: 
" The child is not there." The brothers said noth- 
ing, but took the coat of many colors, dipped it 
in the blood of a slaughtered lamb, and brought 
it back to Jacob. When Jacob saw the bloody 
coat he wept and said: **Alas! some wild beast 
has torn my son, my Joseph." And he wept and 
tore his garments. His children tried to comfort 
him, but he would not be comforted, for he said : 
' ^ I will go down into the grave, mourning for my 
son." Thus poor old Jacob wept and mourned 
for the son, who had been taken from him because 

of envy. 

o 

XVI. JOSEPH IN EGYPT. 

But let us follow Joseph. The Ishmaelitish mer- 
chants carried him to Egypt, and there he was 
sold again to a man named Potiphar, who was 
captain of the king's body-guard. And Joseph 



26 

put his trust in God, and he found grace in the 
eyes of Potiphar, and Potiphar placed him in 
charge of all his house. But Potiphar's wife was 
a wicked woman, and wanted Joseph to commit 
some wrong act, which Joseph refused to do. 
This made her very angry, and when Potiphar 
came home she told him that Joseph had done 
that very thing which he refused to do. Potiphar 
thereupon took Joseph and cast him into prison. 

Poor Joseph ! he was punished for what he did 
not do, yet his faith and trust in God did not stop. 
He kept his belief in God, and did his duty as it 
was to be done. On account of his good conduct 
he wras raised to be overseer over the rest of the 
prisoners. 

He had thus been in prison for some time when 
two men, the chief baker and the chief butler of 
the king, were put in prison. One day Joseph 
noticed that these two men looked very sad, and 
being very kind-hearted, he asked them what it 
was that troubled them. They told him they each 
had had a dream, but did not not know the mean- 
ing of the dream. Joseph asked them to tell him 
their dreams, and, with the help of God, he would 
try to give the meaning of their dreams. 

The chief butler told his dream, and said: ^^I 
dreamed and I saw before me a vine, on which 
there were three branches, with three clusters of 
grapes. And in my dream I saw^ that Pharaoh's* 
cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and 

•• Ever^^ king of Egj^pt was called Pharoah in olden times. 



I 



27 



• pressed them into the cup for wine, and gave it to 
the king, and lo ! he drank the wine I offered him/' 
Then Joseph said : ''The three branches and the 
three clusters mean three days ; that the king took 
the wine that you gave him shows that in three 
days he will take you from prison and place you 
in your office again/' Then Joseph turned to the 
baker and said : ''What is your dream ?'' 

The chief baker answered and said: "I dreamed, 
and in my dream I saw myself. And I had three 
white baskets on my head, and in the baskets were 
all kinds of meats and food for Pharaoh ; but as 
I was going along, the birds came down and 
picked the food from out of the baskets on my 
head." Then Joseph told him and said: "The 
three baskets also mean three days, but that the 
birds picked the food shows that in three days 
Pharaoh shall take you out of prison and hang 
you, and the birds shall pick your flesh as thc}^ 
picked the food." Then Joseph turned to the 
butler and said: "When 3^0 u get back again to 
your office, pray remember me and help me, for I 
have been stolen from the Hebrews, and am in 
prison here most unjustly." And the butler 
promised. 

In three days it came to pass just as Joseph had 
said; the baker was taken out and hanged, the 
birds picked his flesh; the butler was taken and 
given his former position, but he entirely forgot 
his promise to Joseph, and Joseph was left in 
prison. 



28 

XVII. PHARAOH'S OREADS. 

About two years after the event with the butler 
and baker, the king had two dreams. He came to 
the palace and wished some one to tell him the 
meaning of the dreams. Then all the wise men 
and the magicians, the astrologers, and the divi- 
ners, all came to the king to tell the king his 
dreams and the interpretation thereof. But they 
all failed; none of them could do as Pharaoh 
wished them to, and Pharaoh wearied of all the 
trials. At last he said that whoever should make 
the trial and succeed, he would reward with 
splendid gifts ; but no one knew how to interpret 
the dreams. Finally the butler thought of Joseph, 
and how he had told him of his dream, and the 
butler told the king of Joseph. Then Pharaoh 
said: *'Let him be taken out of prison and 
brought here to tell me my dreams.'' Joseph was 
brought before the king, and Pharaoh asked him 
if he could tell the meaning of his dreams. Joseph 
said : '^ God will give Pharaoh a peaceful answer.'' 
Then Pharaoh said : *' I dreamed I stood upon the 
bank of a river and looked about me. I saw 
beautiful, large fields, fruitful and productive. 
And while I looked, behold, seven good, sleek, fat 
kine came up out of the river and commenced to 
feed upon the meadows roundabout. Then there 
came seven lean, hungry kine up out of the river; 
and lo, they went and ate the seven fat kine, and 
yet themselves seemed to get no fatter. 

Again said Pharaoh, *^I dreamed again. In my 



29 

[ream I saw some stalks of corn. On one stalk 
:here were seven fine, fat, full ears of corn that 
were waving in the wind. On another stalk were 
seven hungry, thin, parched ears of corn; and the 
seven thin, parched ears consumed the seven good, 
full ears, and seemed not to be any better or fuller.'' 
Then said Joseph to Pharaoh: ^*In your 
dreams the seven fat kine and seven full ears, that 
came first, mean seven years of plenty and abun- 
dance that are to come — seven years in which the 
earth will bring forth its produce, the herbs will 
sprout and the trees bend with the weight of their 
fruit, and man and animal shall have plenty and 
sufficient. But then the seven lean kine, theseven 
thin, parched ears, show seven years of famine 
that are to come after and devour the seven years 
of plenty. The earth will be barren, the herb will 
be withered, and the fruit on the tree will be lack- 
ing. But,'' added Joseph, '4f thou art wise thou 
wilt provide and prepare for the years of famine. 
Do thou build storehouses and granaries, which 
thou wilt fill during the years of plenty, that 
Egypt will not lack in the years of famine, and 
all nations will come to buy corn from Egypt, and 
Egypt and thou will become great, and rich, and 
mighty." 

''Thou hast spoken well," answered Pharaoh, 
''and I appoint thee as officer to oversee the build- 
ing of these storehouses and the filling of them. 
Thou wilt be high in power ; I and the throne only 
will be above thee." 



30 

So Joseph from the prison became a prince and 

ruler of Egypt. And as he had said, it came to 

pass. The seven years of plenty came and passed 

away, and Joseph built storehouses and filled 

them. The seven years of famine came and all 

countries suffered, while Egypt had plenty; and 

all countries came to Egypt to buy corn of Joseph. 

Among others, there came Joseph^s brothers from 

Canaan, for in Canaan, too, there was famine. 

The brothers came to Joseph, and bowed down to 

him, and begged him to sell them corn. So 

Joseph^s dream came true ; he was a prince, and 

his brothers, w^ho had treated him so badly, were 

bowing before him, though as yet thev knew it 

not. 

o 

CHAPTER V. 



XVIII. JOSEPH AN© HIS BROTHERS. 

In our last chapter we saw Joseph standing in 
all his power and might, as first ruler in Egypt, 
while his brothers humbly knelt before him. He 
knew them full well, but they did not know him. 
And Joseph did not make himself known to them, 
but spoke to them and said, ^^ Who are ye ?'^ They 
answered, ^^ We are men come from Canaan to buy 
corn.'^ Joseph said, ^*No, ye are spies, come to 
spy out the land.'^ They replied , *^No, we are 
honest men, of one family, come to buy corn.'' 
Then Joseph asked, '' Have you a father, and is he 
alive and well, and have ve more brothers ?'' Thev 



31 



answered and told him their father was alive and 
well, and they had yet a younger brother, Benja- 
min. Then Joseph said, ^* Being as you say, you 
are not spies, and have yet a brother, I will keep 
one of you as a pledge till you come again and 
bring your younger brother with you/' And they 
were frightened and spoke to themselves and said, 
^^ What is this evil that has befallen us?'' Then 
they begged Joseph that he should not ask this 
from them, they had lost one brother, and their 
poor father had grieved so, and now to rob him 
of his best-beloved would surely be too much. 
But no, Joseph was firm. ^^ Ye cannotcome again 
unless ye bring your younger brother." They 
went away mourning and grieving, and Joseph 
kept Simeon as a pledge till they came back. When 
they returned to their father's house, they told 
Jacob what the man had said, and they found 
every one his money in his sack, together Avith 
the corn, for so Joseph had commanded. This 
also was a bad sign to Jacob, for he thought evil 
things were again coming to him, and he said, 
*^ You have bereaved me of my children, Joseph is 
gone, Simeon is gone, and Benjamin ye shall not 

take w^ith you." 

o 

XIX. JOSEPH AND HIS BROTllERS. 

(Continued,) 

^^And the famine was sore in the land," and 
Jacob could no longer withhold. He said, **Go 
again and bu^^ corn." Judah said, *^But the man 



32 



did tell us saying that we should not come if we 
did not bring our youngest brother with us, and 
if you send Benjamin with us we can go, but if not 
we can not go/' But Jacob objected, his heart 
was already torn by the loss of two of his sons, 
and he was afraid of losing a third, his best be- 
loved, his Benjamin. Then Judah stepped forward 
and said, ^* Trust the lad with me, I will be surety 
for him, from my hand thou shalt require him/' 
Jacob yielded, but told them to take presents 
along for the man, and a double share of money, 
for their money had been left in their sacks last 
time; and Jacob thought it might have been a 
mistake. The brothers then went again to Egypt 
and stood a second time in the presence of Joseph, 
their brother, but unknown to them. ITis first 
question was concerning his father, Jacob, if he 
v^as alive and well. Then he lifted up his eyes and 
saw Benjamin, he asked, *^Is this your younger 
brother that ye have brought with you?'' They 
answered it was. Joseph could hardly keep back 
his feelings at the sight of his brother, but he told 
them to prepare, as he wanted to give them a 
feast. 

When they came in he seated them according to 
their age, but kept Benjamin near him, very much 
to their surprise; and to Benjamin he gave the 
choicest and the best of the food and drink ; and 
they all ate and drank and were merry with him. 
Joseph then commanded his overseer to ^*Go, fill 
the sack of each one with corn, and put every 






33 



man's money back into the sack. But my silver 
cup put into the sack of the youngest. '^ And the 
superintendent did as Joseph commanded. The 
next morning Joseph's brothers departed with 
their beasts of burden laden with the corn ; and 
they were very happy that they were going home 
safely and Benjamin was with them and Simeon 
also, for he had been set free. They were not gone 
very long before Joseph sent the overseer after 
them, telling him to say to them that his master's 
cup, the silver cup, had been stolen by one of them. 
The overseer went after them and overtook them 
and said, ^'Ye are nice men, indeed. Ye repay 
good with evil. Ye have eaten and have drank 
with my master, and now one of ye has stolen his 
silver cup." They answered, ^^God forbid that 
any of us should do such a wicked thing. We will 
undo the sacks, and with whomever the cup be 
found, let him die, and we will be bondsmen unto 
thy master.'' They took down the sacks and lo, 
in each man's sack was found his money, but no- 
where was the cup to be found till they came to 
Benjamin's, and in his sack was the silver cup. 
Then they tore their clothes and loaded again their 
beasts of burden, and Judah and his brothers 
came back once more into Joseph's presence. 

o 

XX. JOSEPa MAKES HIMSELF KNOW^N. 

When they stood before Joseph, he said, ^^ What 

is this ye have done?" And Judah answered, 

^^What can we say unto my lord, how can we 



34 



speak, we are guiltj^, both we and the one who 
has taken the cup, and we are all servants nnto 
my lord/' But Joseph said, ^^No, the man in 
whose sack the cup was found, he shall be my ser- 
vant. As for ye, ye may go in peace unto your 
father/' 

Then Judah stepped forward and spoke, ^'Par- 
don, my lord, let not thine anger be against thy 
servant, but permit me to speak unto thee. When 
my lord asked his servants, saying, *Have ye a 
father or a brother?' we did answer we had an 
aged father and a younger brother. Then my lord 
said, ^^ Bring your younger brother with you, ye 
can not come again except ye bring your brother.' 
We went back unto our father and told him the 
words of m}^ lord. When our food was gone, our 
father said, ^ Go up and buy a little food,' and we 
answered, we can not go except we bring our 
younger brother. And our father answered, ^M^^ 
wife, Rachel, gave me two sons, one ye have taken 
from me, and now, if ye take this one from me 
also, and evil happens to him, ye will bring down 
my gray hairs in sorrow to the grave.' And when 
I came to thy servant, my father, and said, we 
cannot go back except we bring our younger 
brother with us, for so the man has ordered, I 
saw that the life of our father was bound up in 
that of our younger brother and I said, let the 
lad go along, I will be surety for him that no 
mischief shall befall him, and from my hands thou 
shalt require him; and he suffered the lad to go 



35 

along, I being surety for him. Now, 1 pray thee, 
my lord, let me, thy servant, stay as bondsman in 
in place of the lad, for how can I go up unto my 
father and the lad be not with me ? I would have 
to see the evil that would come to pass unto my 
father/' 

When Judah finished speaking, Joseph could no 
longer restrain his feelings. He sent all the other 
men from the room, and turning to his brothers, 
he said, ^^I am Joseph, thy brother, and is my 
father still alive?'' His brothers could not an- 
swer, they were so terrified at his presence. Joseph 
said, ^^Come near unto me, I pray, I am your 
brother, Joseph, whom ye sold into Egypt. Be 
not grieved or angry with yourselves that ye sold 
me hither, for to preserve life, did God send me — 
for there has been two years' famine in the land, 
and it will be five years before there will be plow- 
ing and harvesting. So God, not you, has sent 
me here to save your lives." He fell upon Benja- 
min's neck and embraced and kissed him, and he 
embraced and kissed all his brothers. He gave all 
of them presents, sent presents to his father, and 
sent them home to bring his father up to him. 
When they went away Joseph said to them, ^^Do 
not fall out by the wayside," meaning they should 
not quarrel as they went home. It may seem to 
you that this is a very queer good-bye to say to 
them. But Joseph knew them well. He knew 
that as they went home they would very naturally 
talk about him, and his sale into Egypt. They 



36 

would each one try to deny his share of it and 
blame it on another. So, blaming each other and 
denying their own share of the guilt, they would 
very soon come to quarrels. So, he simply said to 
them, '^Do not fall out by the wayside.'' So I, 
though by no means a Joseph, say to you, even 
to-day, '^ Do not fall out by the wayside.'' If you 
have ever done wrong in company with others, 
do not afterward try to put the blame on others 
and away from yourself. It will be of no use and 
only lead to quarrels and further mischief. In such 
cases let by-gones be by-gones, they cannot be un- 
done, let them alone, do not fall out with your 
companions on the wayside of life. 

o 

XXI. THE DEATH OF JACOB- 
When the brothers came home and told Jacob 
that his son, Joseph, was still alive and ruler over 
Egypt, he would hardly believe them. But when 
they told him what Joseph had said, when he saw 
the wagons and presents which Joseph had sent 
him, his heart within him rejoiced, his spirit re- 
vived, he said, ^^ Enough, Joseph, my son, is still 
alive, I will go and see him before I die." Then he, 
his sons, all their wives and children, and all his 
household packed together their goods and went 
to Egypt, and all in all, the number that went 
down to Egypt was seventy. On his journey he 
stopped at Beer-Sheba, and offered sacrifices to 
God, and God appeared to him in a vision of the 
night and told him that He would be with him to 



o i 



go down to Egypt and that he would see his son, 
Joseph. He went to Goshen, and Joseph came in 
his chariot to meet his father at Goshen, (Goshen 
was the richest part of the land of Egypt, and 
Pharaoh had given it to Joseph, for his father and 
brothers to live there). Jacob and his sons lived 
there and tended their flocks and sheep. Joseph 
brought his father and brothers before Pharaoh, 
and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 

After Jacob had lived in the land of Goshen for 
seventeen years he began to grow^ w^eak and he 
knew his time to die had come. AH this time 
Joseph had been ruler in Egypt and ruled the 
land exceedingly well. Jacob called all his sons 
to him, and he blessed Joseph and his two sons, 
Ephraim and Menasseh, and he blessed all his 
other sons.* 

When Jacob died his sons mourned for him thirty 
days. When the days of mourning were passed 
Joseph commanded the physicians to embalm the 
body. Then Joseph' and his brothers took the 
body of Jacob and buried it in the Cave of Mach- 
pelah, where were buried Abraham and Isaac 
and their wives, Sarah and Rebekah. Jacob's 
first wife, Leah, was also buried there. 

After his father's burial Joseph returned to 
Egypt and ruled the land long and v^ell. When 

^" The dying blessino- of Jacob is considered one of the most 
beautiful passages in the Bible. You will find it in chapter 
xlix., First book of Moses, GenCvSis. Yon will find it well 
worth yoiir reading. 



38 



he was one hundred and ten years old his sum- 
mons came to die, and his body was embalmed 
and put in a coffin in Egypt, and there was great 
mourning throughout the land of Egypt. 



— ^8^^ ^^^8- 



39 



CHAPTER VI 



XXII. BIRTlI AN© EDtTCATION OF 

MOSES. 

At the time of the death of Joseph the Israelites 
were fully settled in the land of Goshen, and they 
increased wonderfully and grew mighty in number. 
Then the Pharaoh of Joseph's time also died, but the 
memory of Joseph and of his service to Egypt was 
kept alive in the heart of the king and his people 
for a long time. At length, as the Bible expresses 
it, ^^ there arose a king who knew not Joseph,^' 
that is to say, he no longer remembered the good 
that Joseph had done for his ancestors and his 
country. The Israelites too had increased so much 
that the King Pharaoh began to fear them, and 
so he made them all captives and slaves, and they 
had to work for him, build all his buildings, do all 
his work and toil for him for nothing, for no pay 
at all. Their overseers and taskmasters were cruel 
and harsh and treated them very meanly. But in 
spite of all the harshness and cruelty and mean 
treatment, the Israelites thrived and grew might- 
ier and mightier in number. 

Heretofore they were supplied by the king with 
straw and stubble, with which they were to make 



40 

so many bricks per day. If they did not furnish 
the required number of bricks they were whipped 
and beaten unmercifully. But as they increased, 
despite persecution and cruelty, the king one day 
sent forth an order, that henceforth no more 
material was to be supplied to the Israelites ; they 
would be compelled to furnish their own straw 
and stubble, and still they had to turn out the 
same number of bricks as before ! The people 
groaned aloud under this new affliction, but they 
groaned in vain. Their taskmasters only answer- 
ed with the lash and the whip. But still they 
flourished and thrived; God blessed them, 'and 
their number rose higher and higher. Finally, the 
king, Pharaoh, gave forth an order that all the 
male children that would be born to the Israelites 
should be taken and thrown into the river Nile. 
This cruel command went forth, and great grief 
arose among the people. But their prayers and 
tears were of no avail; the heartless overseers and 
taskmasters went through the houses, and all the 
male children were cast into the Nile river. The 
poor helpless infants suffered for a single man's 
fear. 

Among others there was a woman, named 
Jochabed; her husband's name was Amram, and 
to her was born a son. The boy was a beautiful 
lad, and the mother could not bear to give him up 
to the cruel overseers, to be thrown into the river, 
so she hid him and kept him from the taskmasters. 
This continued for about three months, when the 



41 

lad grew to be big and strong, and she could hide 
him no longer. She took a basket and daubed it 
with pitch on the inside and outside so as to 
make it water-tight, lined and padded it nicely, 
and put the little child in the basket. She then 
took the basket and w^ent to the bank of the river. 
There, offering up a short prayer to God, she put 
the infant in His charge, and pushed the basket 
with its precious freight out into the river. She 
watched it as it floated down the stream until it 
passed out of sight, then turned, and with a heavy 
heart went homeward. 

The basket was not altogether un watched, for 
the little boy^s older sister followed it at the 
river's edge, to see what would become of it. It 
floated gently along, the child sleeping quietly and 
peacefully, as though in his cradle at home. At 
last, after going some distance, it stopped, caught 
in some bulrushes that grew in the water. The 
shock awoke the child, w^ho, enjoying his new 
situation, laughed and crowed with delight. 
Very soon, the daughter of the king came down 
from the palace to bathe. As she came near to 
the water she heard the child, and looking around> 
discovered it in its little basket. ^* It is one of the 
Hebrew children,'' she said, and her heart warmed 
toward the child. She sent one of her maids to 
bring the child to the shore. Just then, the older 
sister, who had been watching all this time, with 
an anxious, beating heart, stepped forward and 
asked the princess if she wanted one of the Heb- 



42 

rew women to nurse the child. The princess said 
yes, and the girl hurried off to get the child's own 
mother. The child was taken to the palace, 
and brought up as though he was the son 
of the king's daughter, and was treated like a 
prince as long as he remained in the palace. That 
child was Moses,* our people's great leader and 
law^-giver. His older sister was Miriam. 



PART XXIII. 

Moses remained in the king's palace till he was 
quite a man. He was taught and educated in all 
the knowledge and wisdom of the time. All that 
was fit for a prince to know or to have, he knew 
and had. But he could not speak well, that is, 
he could not speak plainly; he was no orator. 
There is a beautiful fable in the Talmud connected 
with this lack of oratory in Moses. The Talmud 
says that w^hen Moses was taken by Pharaoh's 
daughter and brought into the palace all the wise 
men and magicians and astrologers, etc., said to 
the king, that if that child was allowed to remain 
in the palace he would do some harm to the king 
when he got older. Of course the king's daughter 
protested against this, saying, '^What harm can 
come from the child ?" 

Finally after much talk a trial was agreed upon. 
The child was brought into the room and there 

* Moses (Hebrew Moshe) is from the word Mosha, to 
draw. He was called so because he was drawn out of the 
river by Pharaoh's daughter. 



43 



were placed before him a beautiful ruby and a 
flaming coal. A child's first impulse is to put 
everything in its mouth. If it chose the ruby, 
that would show that it was an extraordinary 
child and knew what it was about and ought to 
be sent away, for it would surely work harm to 
the king. 

When Moses was brought in, and the two 
articles were placed before him, he being an extra- 
ordinary child did take the ruby and was going to 
put it in his mouth, when the angel Gabriel, who 
was standing at his side, quickly changed it and 
gave him the flaming coal instead, which he put 
into his mouth, and burned his mouth, thus caus- 
ing a defect in his speaking. 

But Moses grew up to be a fine, strong young 
man, and being a true man, he was very much 
troubled about the persecutions and oppressions 
of his brethren. 

One day as he was walking along he saw an 
Egyptian and an Israelite fighting together, and 
he stepped up to separate them, when the Egypt- 
ian turned upon him, and Moses slew him. 

Soon after, when he went out a second time, he 
saw two Israelites fighting together. He tried to 
separate them, when one of them turned to him 
and said: '^Who are you that do thus? Who 
made 3.0U a judge or an officer over us? Do you 
intend to slay me as you did the Egyptian?'' 

When Moses heard this he became afraid, for he 
feared that Pharaoh might find out that he had 



44 ^ 

slain the Egyptian. So he fled from Egypt and 
went to the land of Midian, He sat down to rest ■ 
by a well, and the daughters of the priest of 
Midian came to water their flocks. But the shep- 
herds chased them away and would not let them 
come near the w^ell. Then Moses arose and drove 
aw^ay the shepherds, drew water and watered the 
flocks of the maidens. 

When they came home they told their father an 
Egyptian had helped them to water their flocks. 

Then he said: ^^ Where is the man? Wherefore 
have ye left him ? Go call him that he may eat 
bread." 

They called Moses and he came and was content 
to remain with the man, who gave him his daugh- 
ter Zipporah as a wife. And Moses had a son 
whom he named Gershom, which means, *' a stran- 
ger.^' upQj. >^ said Moses, ''I was a stranger in a 

strange land." 

o " 

PART XXIV. 

Moses was the shepherd of Jethro, his father-in- 
law, and every day he took the flocks out to pas- 
ture, for them to graze and feed, and when evening 
came on he led them back to the fold again. One 
day in his wanderings with his flock to find pas- 
ture land he came to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of 
God. As he stood there by the mountain, he saw 
a thorn-bush which had caught on fire and was 
burning. As he stood and watched the burning 
bush he noticed that though the bush had been 



45 



burning for some time it did not seem to be burnt 
up at all, but burned on and on and did not give 
out. Moses said to himself, *^I must turn aside 
and see this wonderful sight, why the thornbush 
is not burnt.'' 

And as he turned aside to see the wonders of the 
ever-burning bush, a voice, the voice of God, called 
to him from the midst of the bush, *^ Moses,'' and 
Moses answered, ^* Here am I." Then the voice 
called again and said, ^^Come not near unto this 
place : put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
ground on which thou standest is holy ground." 
Moses took off his shoes and knelt down in sacred 
fear upon the spot, for the voice of God was speak- 
ing to him. The voice then continued and said, 
*'I am the Lord, God of thy fathers, the God of 
Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob. I have seen the 
affliction and distress of my people in Egypt and 
have heard the cry that has gone up from them 
because of their taskmasters : yea, indeed I know 
their sorrows, and I am come down to deliver 
them out of the power of the Egyptians and take 
them to a land that is good and rich and fertile, to 
a land flowing with milk and honey. Now then 
go. I send thee to Pharaoh, and thou shalt bring 
forth my people, the children of Israel, out of 
Egypt." Then Moses answered, ^' Who am I that 
I should go to Pharaoh, that I should bring the 
children of Israel out of Egypt?" God answered, 
''Do thou go, and i will be with thee, and this 
shall be the sign that I have sent thee, when thou 



46 



hast brought out the people, thou shalt worship 
God upon this mountain/^ 

Then Moses said again unto God, ^^ But the peo- 
ple will not believe me when I come to them and 
tell them that I am sent by your God to deliver 
you out of Egypt. They will say, * What is his 
name?' and then what shall I say unto them ?'' 

^^Tell them,'' answered God, *^that the great, 
eternal and everlasting God, the God of their 
fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
the almighty *I am that I am,' has sent thee to 
them. Go, collect together the elders and chief 
men of Israel, and tell them that their God has 
come to take them out of Egypt to a land rich 
and fertile. Then they will hearken to thy voice, 
and then thou and the elders of Israel shall go 
unto Pharaoh and ask for the release of My peo- 
ple.* But Pharaoh will not. let thee go, and I will 
stretch forth my hand over Egypt and shall work 
wonders and miracles never seen before. Then my 
people shall go out, and each woman shall ask of 
her neighbor vessels, vessels of gold and vessels of 
silver and garments, and they shall put them on 
their sons and daughters, and thej^ shall empty 
out Egypt." 

But said MOvSes again: ^^They will not hearken 
unto my voice or believe me, they will say the 
Lord hath not appeared unto thee." Then God 
said, ^'What is that thou hast in thy hand?" 
Moses answered, ^^ A staff." And the Lord said, 
*^ Cast it upon the ground." And he cast it upon 



47 

the ground, and it became a snake. Moses be- 
came frightened and fled from it. God said, '^ Seize 
it by the tail.'' He took hold of it by the tail and 
it became a staff again in his hands. God said, 
**This will be a sign unto them that the Lord 
hath- sent thee to deliver them.'' And furthermore 
said the Lord, ''Put thy hand into thy bosom." 
Moses put his hand into his bosom and it became 
leprous, white as snow. God said, ''Put thy 
hand again into thy bosom;" and w^hen he drew 
it out it was again as his other flesh. • "Now," 
said God, '*they w^ill hearken unto thy voice and 
will believe thee, and if they do not, thou shalt 
take some water out of the river and pour it upon 
the dry land, and it will come to pass that the 
w^ater out of the river will become as blood upon 
the dry land." 

"Yet," said Moses a third time, "lean not 
speak to them, as thou knowest thy servant, I am 
heavy of speech and heavy of tongue." God an- 
swered, " Go to Aaron, the Levite, thy brother, he 
is a good speaker and he will speak for thee, and I 
will teach you both what you shall do." 

Then Moses turned and w^ent back to Jethro, his 

father-in-law^ 

o 

PART XXV. 

When Moses retured to his father-in-law, Jethro, 
he asked him if he could go back to Egypt to see 
how his friends were getting along, if they were 
alive and well, and Jethro told him to "go in 



48 



peace. '^ Then Moses took his wife and his son, 
and started for Egypt. On the way he met his 
brother Aaron, and he told him what they were 
to do together, and they both went on to Egypt. 
When they came to Egypt they collected together 
all the chief men and elders of the Israelites, and 
Aaron spoke to them the words which God had 
spoken to Moses at Mt. Horeb, and Moses did the 
wonders which God had showed him. The people, 
then believed and trusted in Moses, and knew that 
God had seen their trouble and had heard their 
cry of sorrow, and had now come to help and to 
save them. 

After that Moses went to King Pharaoh, and 
said to him that the Everlasting God of Israel 
demands the release of His people Israel, that they 
may go and hold a feast in the desert. But 
Pharaoh answered, ** Who is this God, this ever- 
lasting One, that I should let the people go to 
serve Him ? I do not know Him. I will not let 
the people go.^' Then when Moses and Aaron 
asked him again, he said, ^^ Wherefore do you 
trouble the people and hinder them from their 
work? Go about your business, and let the peo- 
ple be.'' On that same day Pharaoh commanded 
his taskmasters and overseers not to furnish stub- 
ble or straw to the people with which to make 
bricks. They must gather their own straw, and 
yet each one must hand in the same number of 
bricks each day. You see, Pharaoh had set the 
Israelites to work making bricks, to build cities. 



49 

and he furnislied them with straw to make the 
bricks, and each was to hand in a certain number 
of bricks as a daj^s work. Now he commanded 
that they would have to supply their own mater- 
ial themselves and yet make the same number of 
bricks that they had made before. The poor Israe- 
lites suffered terribly under this new affliction and 
cried aloud in their distress, but it was of no use; 
the cruel taskmasters answered their cries with a 
blow of the lash and only increased their sorrow 
and pain. 

When Moses came back the people spoke to him 
and said, ^* See what thou hast done. Thou didst 
promise to deliver us from the hands of the Egyp- 
tians and set us free, but thou hast only angered 
Pharaoh and made ourworkharder for us.'^ Then 
Moses spoke to the Lord, and said, ^'Wherefore 
didst thou say I should go junto Egypt and free 
thy people ? Is it for this thou didst send me ! 
For since I have spoken to Pharaoh, he has hard- 
ened the work and the people do only suffer the 
more because of my speaking.'^ Then answered 
God: ^* Now thou shalt see what I will do unto 
King Pharaoh, for with a strong hand will he send 
them away and drive them out of the land.'' 

o 

XXVI. THE TEN PLAGIJES. 

'^Now,'' said God to Moses and Aaron, *^go up 
unto Pharaoh and command him to let my people 
Israel go, or I shall smite him with sore and griev- 
ous plagues.'' Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh, 



k 



50 



and Pharaoh asked a miracle from them to show 
that they had come in the name of God ; Aaron 
took his staff which he had in his hand and threw 
it upon the ground, and it turned into a serpent. 
Then Pharaoh called all his wise men and magi- 
cians, and they too cast each one his staff upon 
the ground, and it turned into a serpent, but the 
staff of Aaron swallowed up the staffs of the wise 
men. But yet the heart of Pharaoh was hardened 
and he refused to let the people go. Then God 
commanded Moses, and he sent the first plague 
upon Egypt. He stretched forth his staff over the 
river of Egypt and all its water became blood ; so 
also the water in all the wells and cisterns, in all 
the jars and vessels and crocks, all the water 
throughout the land of Egypt was turned into 
blood, and there was no water to drink. The 
Egyptians had to dig wells away from the river 
bank to get water to drink. But yet Pharaoh 
would not let the people go, for his magicians had 
also changed the water into blood. Then Moses 
brought the second plague upon Egypt, By the 
command of God he spoke to Aaron, and Aaron 
stretched his staff out over the waters of Egypt, 
and out of all the waters of Egypt there came up 
frogs. From every pond, river, creek, well and 
cistern, frogs came up and spead themselves over 
the entire land of Egypt. Every house w^as full of 
frogs, frogs were everywhere, and the whole land 
was horrible because of frogs. 
Then Pharaoh became sick. He called unto 



51 



Moses and Aaron and told them: ^^Only take 
these frogs away from my land and I will let your 
people go to serve their God/* Moses stretched 
his staff again over the land and all the frogs died 
out of the land. They gathered them together 
into great heaps and the whole land smelled hor- 
ribly because of the frogs. 

When, however, Pharaoh saw that the frogs 
were all gone and the land w^as free from them, he 
got over his fright and he refused then to let the 
people go. When Moses heard this, by the com- 
mand of God, he stretched forth his hand over all 
the dust of Eg3^pt, and all the dust of Egypt be- 
came vermin and insects upon every man and 
woman and child in Egypt, and also upon all the 
beasts, the cattle, the oxen and the sheep. But 
the land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, had 
none of these plagues, not the blood nor the frogs 
nor the vermin. The magicians and the wise men 
of Pharaoh also tried to do the same, to bring the 
vermin, but they could not, and they cried out, 
*'Itis the finger of God." But Pharaoh^s heart 
was hard and he hearken not to what they said. 
Then God said to Moses, ^*Go place thyself before 
Pharaoh, as he goeth down to the water, and tell 
him that the Lord God says, ^^Let my people go 
that the^^ may serve me. If he will not let them 
go I will send against him and all his house wild 
beasts, and all the houses of the Egyptians shall 
be full of wild beasts. But I will make a distinc- 
tion," said God, ^^tliat the land of Goshen, where 



52 



my people are, there shall be no wild beasts, that 
Pharaoh may know I am the Lord God of Israel.'^ 
But Pharaoh was stubborn and would not let the 
people go. So Moses sent the wild beasts, that 
went into every house in Egypt, and the whole 
land was laid waste because of the wild beasts. 
Then Pharaoh called to Moses and said, ''Go, 
sacrifice to your God, go, but do not go very far 
from me, I pray you. Go, but take these wild 
beasts from me.^^ Then Moses prayed unto God 
and God removed the wild beasts from the land. 

But again when Pharaoh saw that there was a 
rest, that the wild beasts were removed, his heart 
again became hard; he became stubborn, and 
would not let the people go. 

So Pharaoh did after each plague. God would 
send a fearful plague upon him, and while it was 
there he w^ould promise to let the people go. But 
when the plague v^as gone he would break his 
promise and not let them go. So he did for ten 
plagues, four of which I have already mentioned 
to you, and of the rest I will tell only the names, 
for it all happened the same way. Pharaoh would 
yield while the plague was there, but became 
stubborn again after it was gone, until the last 
great plague, when he drove the Israelites out of 
the land. The first nine plagues are: (1) blood, 
(2) frogs, (3) vermin, (4) wnld beasts, (5) murrain,* 
(6) boils, (7) hail, (8) locusts, (9) darkness. You 

* Murrain is a sickness that affects oxen and cattle and 
sheep, etc. 



53 

must remember that from all these plagues the 
children of Israel in the land of Goshen were free, 
and so also in this great and fearful, last and 
tenth plague. 



XXVII. THE LAST AN© TENTH PLAGXJE. 

God thought that now with these nine plagues 
he had punished Pharaoh enough for all his cruelty 
to the people of Israel, so He determined He would 
send one more plague that would be so terrible 
and so fearful that Pharaoh would be glad to get 
rid of the Israelites. He commanded Moses to 
tell the Israelites that each one should take a lamb 
and slaughter it, offer it up to God, and sprinkle 
its blood upon the door-posts of the houses. For 
that night the Angel of Death was going to pass 
through the land at midnight, and he would visit 
with death every house upon which there was not 
sprinkled the blood of the lamb. 

Moses commanded the Israelites, and each man 
slaughtered a lamb and sprinkled its blood upon 
the door-posts of the houses. Moses also told 
them to make themselves ready to go, and be pre- 
pared to leave at any time, for no^^ the moment 
of their freedom out of Egypt was at hand. 

Everything was in perfect readiness, and that 
night, at the hour of midnight, God's Angel of 
Death went through Egypt and knocked at the 
door of every house on which there was not the 
blood of the lamb. And in every house there died 
on that night the first-born child, the first-born of 



54 



the king as well as the first-born of the lowest 
slave, and also the first-born of the cattle. But 
the houses on which the blood was sprinkled the 
angel passed over, and in them no one died. 

Then Pharaoh and his people awoke, and there 
arose out of Egypt such a cry as had never been 
heard, or shall ever be heard, for there was not a 
house in which there was not one dead. 

Then Pharaoh called unto Moses and Aaron in 
the night and said, '^Rise up and go forth from 
among my people. Go, serve your God as you 
have spoken.'' Then Moses called to all the peo- 
ple and they rose up and went out of Egypt. They 
went in a great hurry and they took their bread 
with them unleavened. And each woman had 
asked her Egyptian neighbor for vessels of gold 
and silver, and for garments. These they took 
along with them, and they emptied out Egypt. 
Their bread which they had taken with them they 
baked into unleavened cakes, for they had no time 
to leaven it. And that is the reason when Pesach 
comes along that we to-day eat Matzos^ for they 
are unleavened cakes, and they remind us of the 
time when, our forefathers went out of Egypt from 
slavery to freedom. So also our Feast of Pesach 
reminds us of what the people suffered then in 
captivity, and we think how wc are free and 
happy to-day. We think how God cared for his 
people and took them out of slaver^^, worked so 
many wonders for them, punished Pharaoh for 
his cruelty and v^ickedness to them . We think also 



55 

how God has so kindly kept and guarded our fore- 
fathers from that time to the present day, how he 
has always been with them, has fought for them 
and helped them, till to-day we are a free and 
happy people in a free and beautiful land. Ought 
we not, dear children, be thankful and grateful to 
God for all His mercies and kindness ? 



CHAPTER VII 



PART XXVIII. 

My dear children, you remember that in our 
history last time we came out of Egypt with the 
children of Israel. Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, 
had been smitten with ten fearful and dreadful 
plagues ending with that last, most terrible of all, 
the death of all the first-born children of Egypt. 
Then in the middle of the night of the fourteenth 
of Nissan,* the Israelites rose up and went out of 
Egypt. The number that went out of Egypt was 
600,000 souls. 

The Israelites went on their way glad and re- 
joicing, for they had left behind them a life of 
trouble, sorrow and slavery, and were now enter- 
ing upon a new life of happiness and independence. 
Besides God was with them, for He went before 
them with a pillar of cloud by da}^ and a pillar of 
fire by night, to showthemthe way and lead them. 
Moses also was with them, that same brave man 



I 



Nissan is the first month of the Jewish calendar. 



56 



who had dared to stand before the king of Egypt 
and demand the release of the people of God. So 
with happy hearts they went out of their home of 
slavery, and they took with them the bones of 
Joseph, for when Joseph died he had made the Is- 
raelites promise that they would take his bones 
with them when God ^w^ould take them out of 
Egypt. 

Happily then they followed the pillow of cloud 
by day and the pillar of fire by night, and it led 
them, not through the land of the Philistines, for 
the Philistines were enemies and there might be 
war, and the Israelites were not prepared to fight, 
but by a roundabout way and they at last en- 
camped at the edge of the wnlderness, and near 
the Red Sea. 

When Pharaoh heard that the Israelites were 
encamped between the wilderness and the sea, he 
said to himself: ^^ They are caught in the land, and 
the wilderness has shut them in. I will go after 
them and catch them again. '^ You see Pharaoh 
felt very sore that the Israelites had left him, for 
it was to him the loss of 600,000 persons, who 
had worked for him for nothing, for the Israelites 
had been his slaves. So he made ready all his 
army, took six hundred fine, chosen chariots, and 
all the rest of the chariots in Egypt and went after 
the Israelites to bring them back to Egypt. He 
came upon them as they were encamped by the sea. 

When the Israelites saw Pharaoh with all his 
chariots and his immense army come up behind 



57 

them, they v^ere greatly frightened. There AT^as 
the sea stretching out in front of them, the great 
forest and wilderness lying around them, and the 
dreaded Pharaoh, with his army, behind them. 
They had no way by which they could flee, and in 
their terror they cried out against Moses and said 
to him: ''Is it because there are no graves in 
Egypt that you bring us out to die here in the 
wilderncv^s ? Is it for this you brought us out of 
Egypt? It is better for us that we serve the Egyp- 
tians than to die here in the wilderness. ^^ But 
Moses answered, ''Wait and see the help which 
God has prepared for you. Do you keep quiet, 
God will fight for you.'' 

o 

XXIX. TllE CROSSING OF THE RE© SEA. 

That night the Israelites slept peacefully in their 
camp, for the pillar of cloud, that had been in front 
of them, went behind the camp and stood between 
them and the army of Pharaoh, so that the two 
came not unto each other all che night. That 
night, too, God caused a wind to blow from the 
east and it drove back the sea and made it dry 
land. When the Israelites awoke in the morning, 
Moses led them and theyfollowed him, on dryland 
through the sea, and the waters stood up as a 
living wall on the side of them. Pharaoh and his 
army too awoke, and great was their astonish- 
ment to see the Israelites slip from their hands 
and escape through the sea. Pharaoh immedi- 
ately commanded his army to move forward and 



58 



follow the Israelites into the sea. But the Israe- 
lites were already on the other side and safe out, 
and God caused the sea to go down and it swept 
over Pharaoh and his whole army and they all 
were drowned, horses and riders, king and soldiers, 
all were drowned in the mighty sea through which 
the Israelites passed safely under the guidance 
of God. 

Thelsraeliteswerenow happy and joyful, God had 
again helped them and they had seen with their 
own eyes how their enemy and persecutor, the 
cruel Pharaoh, with all his immense army, had 
been destroyed in the sea. 

They sang and danced and were happy at their 
deliverance, but Moses called their attention and 
showed them how it was that God had helped 
them, and had destroyed their enemies. He told 
them that they should sing and give thanks to 
Him, and Moseshimself composed a beautiful song 
in praise of God (which, if you want to read, you 
can find in the fifteenth chapter of Exodus, the 
second Book of Moses). And Miriam, the sister 
of Moses, the one who had watched him as he 
floated down the river Nile, also sang a beautiful 
song in honor of God. And now the people feared 
God, and beheved in Moses, His servant. 

In this happy frame of mind, Moses led the child- 
ren of Israel away from the sea to the wilderness 
of Shur. Here they journeyed for three da3^s, but 
could find no water to drink. Their supply of 
water had given out, and the people were begin- 



59 

ning to get anxious on account of the lack of 
water, when they came to Marah where there w^as 
water. They all joyfully and eagerly went, for- 
ward to drink the waters of Marah, when lo ! the 
waters were bitter, they could not drink them. 
At this disappointment, together with the want 
of water, the people forgot all about God and His 
goodness, forgot all the good that Moses had done 
to them, and murmured and rebelled against 
Moses, saying: ^* What shall we drink ?^' Moses 
prayed unto God, and God showed him a tree 
which he cast into the water, and the water be- 
came sweet. And the people drank and were 

satisfied. 

o 

XXX. Tti[E MANNA. 

From the waters of Marah in the desert of Shur, 
Moses led the Israelites first to Elim, where they 
encamped a short w^hile. From Elim they w^ent 
to the desert of Sin. It was now the fifteenth day 
of the second month after their departure out of 
Egypt. Being most of the time in the desert 
where they could get no food of any kind, the 
food which they had brought with them out of 
Egypt w^as almost gone, and in many cases en- 
tirely gone. 

They became frightened, and in their fear and 
fright they forgot that God was watching them, 
they forgot that the Almighty Being who had 
taken them out of Egypt, had punished Pharaoh 
with ten fearful plagues, had led them with a pillar 



60 



of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, had 
carried them safely through the Red Sea, and had 
drowned therein Pharaoh and his great army, had 
sweetened for them the bitter waters of Marah, 
they forgot that this same almighty and good 
God was still watching over them, and they cried 
out against Him and Moses saying: ^* Would that 
we had died by the hand of God in Egypt, where 
we sat by our flesh-pots, and had bread to eat to 
the full. Why hast thou brought us out here in 
the wilderness to kill us all with hunger ?^^ 

Alas, how forgetful the people are of all the 
goodness of God. They go along day after day, 
and are loaded with blessings and good things, 
but never stop to think who gave them to them, 
or to thank Him. But the moment a bit of trouble 
comes upon them they turn to God they had 
neglected in their prosperity and cry to Him for 
help. Ah, my dear children, think how many good 
things you have, and stop a moment to thank the 
Giver of all good, for He is watching you to-day, 
as he did the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sin so 
many thousand years ago. 

Moses at this new rebellion of the people turned 
to God, and God said to him: ''I will let rain 
bread from heaven, and the people shall go out 
and gather it, only a certain portion every day. 
And it shall come to pass that on the sixth da3'they 
shall gather a double share of what they gather 
every day.'^ Moses then turned to the people and 
said: ^^At evening ye shall know that it is God 



I 



61 

who has led you out of Egypt, and in the morning 
ye shall behold the glory of God which He will 
prepare for you/^ 

In the morning when the people awoke, there 
was around the camp a layer of dew, and w^hen 
the layer of dew was gone, there was upon the 
faceof thewlderness something veryfinein grains, 
very much like hoar-frost. And when the children 
of Israel saw it, they said unto one another, it is 
^' Manna, '^ for they knew not what it was. And 
God commanded that each man should gather 
every day an ^^ omer ^^ "^ full for every person in the 
house. Each man should gather according to his 
household. On the sixth day they gathered a 
double share, for on the morrow, on Sabbath, the 
day of rest, no manna fell, for it was a holy day, 
a day sacred to God. 

o 

XXXI. TllE FIGHT WITlI AMALEK- 

From the Desert of Sin the Israelites continued 
their journeyings, and after some time they en- 
camped at Rephidim. Again here at Rephidim 
there was no water for the people to drink. You 
must remember, dear children, that in the desert 
there is nothing on which a person can live. There 
is no flower nor tree nor bush, nor vegetation of 
any kind ; nor are there any streams or ponds or 
any kind of water. All is sand, sand, trackless 
sand, as far as the eye can reach. You look to the 
right and you see the sand stretching away, away 

* An omer is a measure used artioug the Hebrews. 



62 

till you can see no more, and the heaven comes 
down and kisses the sand ; you look to the left 
and you see the same, the sand reaching out until 
the sand meets the sky. And so is on any side you 
may look. It was only by the goodness and care 
of God, which gave them food and drink that the 
Israelites were able to journey in the desert. Now 
again they came to a place where they had no 
water to drink, and again they forgot all the good 
that God had done to them before, and cried out 
against Moses, saying: ^^ Why did you bring us 
out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our 
cattle.'^ 

Moses, however, had firm faith and trust in God, 
and this faith and trust never misled him. He 
turned to God in this new trouble, and God said 
to him: *^Take thy staff which thou hast in thy 
hand, and go before the people and smite upon the 
rock at Horeb ; and there shall come forth from it 
water, and the people shall drink. '^ 

Moses did so before the eyes of the elders and 
people of Israel. He smote the rock, the water 
came forth and the people drank. And he called 
the place Massah and Meribbah, because of the 
quarreling and rebellion of the people. 

There was an idol-worshiping nation near Rephi- 
dim, named Amalek. When Amalek heard that 
the people of Israel were encamped at Rephidim, 
that nation came up to fight with Israel. Moses, 
when he saw Amalek coming, told Joshua to 
choose for himself men to fight Amalek, and Moses, 



63 

Aaron and Cliur went up on the mountain. Joshua 
did as he was told, chose the men, while Moses and 
his companions went up on the mountain. Joshua 
fought with Amalek, while Moses on the mountain 
held up his hand and prayed to God. As long as 
Moses held up his hand in prayer to God the Israe- 
Utes conquered Amalek, but when Moses took his 
hands down Amalek got the better of Israel. So 
Aaron and Chur held up the hands of Moses, and 
when the sun went down Moses w^as holding his 
hands up in prayer to God, and Israel conquered 
Amalek, who fled from before Israel. 

Now, my dear children, you must not think that 
the holding up of the hands of Moses was the 
cause of the defeat of Amalek, for surely that did 
not make Amalek weaker in men or Israel stronger 
in men. But it did make Israel stronger in spirit, 
for when they saw Moses holding up his hands in 
prayer to God, they knew that God was with 
them on their side. So they fought with greater 
courage and more spirit because of their faith in 
God, and their faith in God helped them win the 
battle from Amalek. So, also to-day, dear child- 
ren, you should put you faith and trust in God, 
and it will give you better feeling, more courage, 
and greater spirit ; and you will be the victor in 
the battle of life in which you are daily engaged. 

o 

XXXII. THE VISIT OF JETHRO. 

After this battle, so grandly won, Moses led the 
Israelites a little farther in the desert and encamped 



64 

them in the wilderness. While he was here Moses 
received a visit from Jethro, his father-in-law. Je- 
thro was a Midianite, and Moses had married his 
danghter, Zipporah, at the time when he had fled 
from Egypt and had gone to Midianto seek refuge. 
Now Jethro came to him, bringing with him the 
wife and two sons of Moses. The names of the 
two sons were Gershom^ andEliezer.f Moses was 
greatly rejoiced to see his father-in-law and his 
wife and his children, and he went out to meet 
them. When Jethro and Moses had met and greet- 
ed each other, Moses told Jethro all that God had 
done for Israel, hov^ He heard their cry in Egypt, 
when the cruel taskmasters imbittered their lives, 
how he had brought them out of Egypt, through 
the Red Sea, through the desert and through many 
other dangers, had carried them by the power of 
His great love and kindness to the place and 
the time where Jethro now saw them, contented 
and happy because of their recent victor^^ over 
Amalek. When Jethro heard all this he rejoiced 
greatly and said, ^^ Blessed be the God who has 
delivered the people out of the hand of Pharaoh and 
out of the power of the Egyptians. '' Jethro also 
built an altar and sacrificed before God with all 
the elders of Israel. 
It happened one day during Jethro ^s visit to 

*The wrord Gershom means a stranger there. Moses 
named him so because he was a stranger in the land of Midian, 
when the lad was born. 

tEliezer was so called because ''God" was the ''help" of 
Moses in rescuing the Israelites. 



65 

Moses that Jethro stood by while Moses judged 
the people ; and the people stood around Moses 
from morning until evening. As Jethro remarked 
this he said to Moses, '*What is this thou dost, 
that thou sittest alone and the people stand 
around thee from morning till evening?" Moses 
answered, *^I sit here to judge the people, because 
the people come here to inquire of God. When 
they have a matter of dispute they come to me, 
and I judge between one man and his neighbor and 
make them know the laws of God.'' Then the 
father-in-law of Moses answered him: ^*But it is 
too much for thee, thou will surely wear thyself 
away, and also the people that is with thee, thou 
canst not do it alone. Now hearken to me and 
take my counsel,'' he continued, ** thou shalt be 
the mediator between the people and God and 
shall let the people know the laws of God ; but 
moreover thou shall select from among the people 
able men; men of God; men who love truth; men 
who care not for their own gain, and these thou 
shalt set to judge the people, so that it will be 
easier with thee. For the light and easy matters 
they shall judge and the weighty ones only shall 
come unto thee*" Moses hearken'cd unto the voice 
of his father-in-law and did all that hehad^said. 
He chose good, honest men, who judged the peo- 
ple well, and only the difficult matters came to 
him. Then Jethro went back unto his land again- 



66 

CHAPTER VIII. 



XXXIII. Tti[E TEN COMMANDMENTS AT 

MT. SINAI. 

After the departure of Jethro, Moses led the Is- 
raeUtes onward till, in the third month after their 
coming out of Egypt, they encamped in the wilder- 
ness of Sinai, opposite the foot of the mountain. 

There God appeared to Moses and commanded 
him to tell the people they were to get ready and 
come to the foot of the mountain, as then the 
glory of God would appear from the mountain. 
Moses did as God had told him, he ordered the Is- 
raelites to prepare themselves to approach the 
mountain, but he set bounds that they should not 
come too near. On the third day the people as- 
sembled at the foot of the mountain, and the 
power and glory of God began to make itself 
manifest. There were thunders and lightnings 
rolling along and flashing forth from the heavens ; 
a heavy cloud ^was upon the mountain, the sound 
of the cornet mingled with the roar of thunder, 
and before all this manifestation of God the peo- 
ple trembled and became afraid. Then Moses 
made an offering unto God, and sacrificed peace- 
offerings. For six days the glory of God was ap- 
parent upon the mountain and on the seventh 
day Moses went up the mountain. ' He was 
gone on the mountain forty days and forty nights, 
and while on the mountain he was with God, who 
gave him the folio w^ing : 



67 



TEN COMMANDMENTS. 

(Exodus XX, 2-14.) 

I. 1 am the Eternal thy God, who brought thee 
out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of 
bondage. 

II. Thou shalt have no other Gods before Me. 
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
or the likeness of anything that is in the heavens 
above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters 
under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to 
them nor serve them, for I the Eternal thy God, 
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the 
fathers upon the children to the third and fourth 
generation of them that hate Me, showing 
kindness unto the thousandth generation of thoso 
that love Me and keep My commandments. 

III. Thou shalt not take the Name of the Eternal, 
thy God in vain, for God will not hold him guilt- 
less, who taketh His Name in vain. 

IV. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. 
Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work, 
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Eternal 
thy God. On it thou shalt do no work, neither 
thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man- 
servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor 
the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six 
days God made heaven and earth, the sea and all 
that is therein, and ceased His labors on the 
seventh day. Therefore God blessed the Sabbath 
day and hallowed it. 



68 

V. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
days may be prolonged in the land which the 
Eternal thy God giveth thee. 

VI. Thou shalt not kill. 

VII. Thou shalt not lead an impure life. 

VIII. Thou shalt not steal. 

IX. Thou shalt not bear false testimony against 
thy neighbor. 

X. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house. 
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his 
man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his cattle, 
nor anything that is thy neigabor's. 

o 

XXXIV. THE GOLDEN CALF, 

When Moses had been gone on the mountain for 
some time the people began to get impatient at 
his long absence. They inquired about him of Aa- 
ron, but he could give no news of him. His absence 
continued, and their impatience changed into low 
muttered grumblings, and from indistinct grum- 
blings it finally broke out into open remonstrance 
and rebellion. They came storming to Aaron and 
angrily demanded the whereabouts of Moses, say- 
ing: *' Where is this man Moses? Up, make us 
gods that shall go before us, for we know not 
what has become of that man Moses who brought 
us out of Egypt. ^^ Poor Aaron, unused to leader- 
ship, unused to withstand the foolish anger of the 
people, did not know how to act, so he said to 
them, ^^Take out all the golden ear-rings which 
are in the ears of your wives and your sons and 



69 

your daughtens and bring them to me/' He 
thought that the people would not be willing to 
give up their golden ornaments, and so he could 
escape complying with their angry demand for a 
god. But in this he was mistaken. The people 
brought to him their gold. He took it, made a 
mould and cast the gold into the shape of a calf. 
When Aaron saw the golden idol, he said, ^^ These 
are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out 
of Egypt.'' He then proclaimed that there would 
be a feast unto this god on the morrow. 

The people rose up early the next day, came near 
unto the idol and offered it burnt-offerings and 
peace-offerings. They sat down to eat and drink 
and then arose and sang and danced around the 
golden calf, worshipping it with all the enthusiasm 
of their savage nature. 

Meanwhile God spake to Moses on the moun- 
tain and said, ''Go, get thee down, for the people v 
which thou hast brought out of Egypt is wicked 
and corrupt." Moses, with the two tablets of 
stone in his hands, turned and went down the 
mountain, where he had been for forty days and 
nights for the sake of that ungrateful people, now 
dancing around the golden calf at the base of the 
mountain. When he came near he heard the voice 
of singing and as he drew near enough to see, his 
righteous anger and indignation knew no bounds. 
He seized the two tablets of stone, and with all 
his force dashed them to pieces at his feet. Then 
he stepped boldly into the midst of the sinning 



70 



Israelites, took their golden calf, ground it into 
fine powder, and cast into the water, so that the 
people conld drink their god. Then he turned to 
Aaron and said, ^' What has this people done that 
you have brought upon it such a great sin?'' 
Aaron explained that the people came to him 
clamoring for a god and he took their golden 
rings and cast it and the form of a calf came out. 

Moses saw that the people had become unruly, 
so he placed himself at the gate of the camp and 
said, *'A11 who are on the side of the Lord, let 
them come unto me.'' There came to him all the 
tribe of Levi.* He told them they should punish 
the idolators and many of those w^ho had bowed 
down to the golden calf were killed. 

God told Moses to hew two more tablets of 
stone like the first two and bring them to Him. 
Moses brought the two tablets and went again up 
on the mountain of Sinai, where he stood a second 
time in the presence of God. 

o 

XXXV. THE BiJlLDING OF A 
TABERNACLE. 

Soon after this Moses gathered together all the 
people and spoke to them as follows : ''Thus says 
the Lord your God : * Let all those of willing heart 

* From this time on, because of its righteous action, the 
tribe of Levi was consecrated to God and became the priests 
and teachers of the people. Formerly every first-born son of 
every family of each tribe was to be a priest, but from now on 
this holv dutv was given to the Levites alone. 



71 

bring to me ofiferings for the building of the Taber- 
nacle, offerings of gold and silver and copper, 
ofiferings of cloth and yarn, of blue and purple 
and scarlet yarn, offerings of wood and of skins, 
ofiferings of oil, oil for lighting and oil for anoint- 
ment, and ofiferings of onyx stone and other preci- 
ous stones, and also all the skilful and wise among 
YOU shall come to do all that the Lord has com- 
manded.'^ You will notice, my dear children, 
that the verse expressly says ^^ those of willing 
heart/ ^ Such only were the ofiferings that God 
desired, not those that were brought with grum- 
bling and reluctance, but only such as came with 
the heart of the giver; came with joy and glad- 
ness to do something to show gratitude to the 
great and good God that had given them so much 
and had done so much for them. So also to-day, 
my dear young readers, of all the good things and 
blessings that you enjoy, remember that they have 
all been given to you by God, and if He should 
ask anything from you, do you give it gladl}^ and 
with a willing heart, and you will build up a 
tabernacle of peace in your own heart, as did 
those Israelites many years ago in the v^ild and 
sandy desert, built a tabernacle of glory and 
beauty to the God who had done so much for them. 
When all had been collected together, Moses 
called for architects,* builders, masons and work- 
men, and with them built a temple, a tabernacle 

* The architects who are specially mentioned in connection 
with the building of the tabernacle, are Bezalel and Aholiab, 
of the tribe of Dan. 



72 



according to the following plan: The length of 
the tabernacle was thirty cubits, and its height 
ten and iis breadth ten. Each side of the taber- 
nacle was made up of twenty boards of acacia 
(shittim) wood, each board plated with gold, and 
fastened to its neighbor by sockets of silver; each 
board ten cubits high and a cubit and a half wide. 

For the rear or westw^ard end of the tabernacle, 
there were six boards, with two end boards for 
the purpose of joining the end firmly to the 
sides. 

At the opposite or eastern end, which was the 
entrance, there were five wooden pillars richly 
carved and ornamented ^th gold. Over these 
pillars there was a beautifully embroidered curtain 
of bright and rich colors, and this curtain formed 
the entrance of the tabernacle. 

The ceiling was made of fine and strong linen, 
also embroidered in beautiful designs, rich in color. 
Spread over this w^as a covering made of goat's 
hair, upon this a covering of skins, and upon this 
still a fourth, made to keep the tabernacle safe and 
dry in all kinds of weather. 

The tabernacle was divided into two divisions; 
that which divided them was another beautiful 
curtain, hung upon four wooden pillars, wrought 
with gold and beautiful designs. The larger apart- 
ment was toward the east, or entrance, of the 
tabernacle, and the western apartment, an exact 
cube of ten cubits high, ten long and ten broad, 
called the holv of holies. 



73 

XXXVI- THE FURNITURE OF THE 
TABERNACLE. 

In the eastern part, called the sanctuary, or holy 
place, there were the *^ golden candlestick'' and 
the ''table of show-bread.'' 

The candlestick was made of purest beaten gold, 
with a central shaft and three branches on either 
side rising to equal height with the central branch, 
forming thus seven sockets for seven lights. The 
central shaft, and branching arms as well, were 
made of exquisitely figured and purest gold 
Everything that belonged to the candlestick, its 
bowls and tongs and snuff dishes, all were of 
finest gold. 

In the sanctuary there was also the table of 
show-bread. It was like a small, ordinary table, 
upon four legs. But it was overlaid with gold, 
and around its edge w^as a rim or crown, also of 
gold. It had two long poles attached to it run- 
ning through golden rings and projecting out at 
either end. These poles were for the purpose of 
carrying the table. On it, arranged in two piles, 
were twelves loaves or cakes, according to the 
twelve tribes of Israel. They were replaced every 
Friday by fresh loaves, by the priests. 

A third article in the Sanctuary was the altar 
for burning incense. It was made of acacia or 
shittim wood, was one cubit long, one cubit 
broad and two cubits high. It was plated with 
gold, and sweet incense was burnt thereon, in 
honor of the Lord, every morning and evening. 



74 



All the articles hitherto described were in the 
eastern and large apartment, called the Sanctuary, 
but in the western division of the tabernacle there 
was only one, called the ^^ Ark of the Covenant/' 
It w^as a box made of v^ood, plated with gold, but 
its lid, or cover, was not plated, but was of the 
purest of that precious metal. This also had a 
rim or crow^n around it. On the lid were placed 
two figures of gold, the figures of cherubim or 
angels, kneeling, facing each other. Their arms 
were folded over their breasts in form of prayer, 
and their outspread wings, of purest gold, pro- 
jected over above their heads so far that they' 
touched one another. The lid of the ark beneath 
the outspread wings of the cherubim was called 
the Mercy Seat, and within the ark were the two 
tables of stone inscribed wath the Ten Command- 
ments, which Moses had brought down from the 
mountains. 

The Holy of Holies which contained the ark of the 
covenant, was kept always dark, and no one dared 
to enter it, not even Moses himself, no one could 
enter except the high priest, and he only once a 
year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, 
when he went in to atone for the sins of the people. 

This was the tabernacle proper, built under the 
direction of Moses from the offerings brought by 
the people, brought from their own willing hearts 
for the temple and glor3'' of God. 

o 



75 



XXXVII. TllE oiJter coiJrt, 

The tabernacle was surrounded by a much lar- 
ger inclosure, called the court. This court was 
one hundred cubits long, and fifty broad. Around 
this was the fence, made of pillars, twenty on each 
side, and ten at each end. These pillars stood in 
sockets of brass and were held together by means 
of rods, from which curtains \srere suspended. 

Within this space, called the court, stood the 
altar for burnt-offerings. It was made of brass- 
plated acacia wood. It was about five cubits 
long, five broad, and about three cubits high. It 
had a horn at each upper corner. On it were sac- 
rificed the daily burnt-offerings of the people, and 
on it also was kept alive the continual sacred fire. 
The ash-pans into which the ashes of the offerings 
fell, as also the tongs, shovels, etc., were made of 
copper, kept brightly polished and burnished. 

In the court there was also the brazen laver, for 
the priests. As its name signifies it was made of 
metal, and the metal was supposed to have been 
made of the metal mirrors of women who served 
at the tabernacle. It was a large basin resting on 
a pedestal, or base, and in it was kept water for 
the use of priests, who were require to cleanse 
themselves ere they entered upon an^^ sacred duty. 

Into the court all the people were allow^ed to 
enter, and it stood unroofed, the smoke from the 
burnt-offerings going unimpeded to the blue sky 
above. 



76 

The tabernacle stood at the western end of the 
court, its entrance facing the east and the rising 
sun. At the western end of the tabernacle stood 
the Holy of Holies. 

And just think, dear children, the whole of this 
beautiful tabernacle, with all its golden plates, the 
silver sockets, the magnificently embroidered cur- 
tains, rich in color and in design, the golden candle- 
stick, the table of show-bread, the ark of the cove- 
nant, with the cherubim bending in ever sacred 
silence over the golden mercy-seat and curtain — all 
this surrounded by the richly carved and curtained 
pillars of the tabernacle, and again surrounded by 
the beautiful flowing robes of the court, all this, 
think, dear children was made from offerings 
brought b3^ willing hearts and the work done by 
the willing hands of the Israelites in the desert. 
And yet they did nothing but what they should 
have done, for all they had and all we have is from 
God, and there can be no more fitting use of it 
than to be again dedicated to His service. 



XXXVIII. XHE GARMENTS OF THE 
PRIESTS. 

After the building of the tabernacle had been 
finished God called unto Moses and told hi'm to 
take his brother Aaron and sanctify him as high- 
priest, and that the tribe of Levi should become 
the priests of the people.* 

"^"This was because of the virtuous action, at the time of 
the worship of the golden calf. 



77 



The garments of the high-priest consisted of four 
different pieces, each piece woven of the finest and 
richest cloth and embroidered with most beautiful 
work. The largest garment, or the robe (in He- 
brew the ^^J/D M^eel), reached from the shoulders 
almost to the ground. At the bottom it had a 
hem, to which were attached small golden bells. 
This robe was, however, shorter than the linen 
shirt or tunic worn under it, which extended to 
the ankles. Above the robe was worn the Ephod 
(mSN ) • This was a still shorter garment, fastened 
at each shoulder by precious stones engraved with 
the names of the tribes, and caught at the waist 
by a belt, or girdle, made of the same finely- 
wrought work of which the Ephod was made. 

Upon his breast the high-priest wore a breast- 
plate, called the breast-plate of judgment (fti^n 
Di3kJ^Dn)- I"t was of the same material as the 
Ephod, and on it, in three rov^s, ^vere twelve pre- 
cious stones, again representing the twelve tribes. 
In the breast-plate was also the Urim and Thumim, 
which was consulted by the high-priest for the 
people in times of danger. 

And lastly upon his head the high-priest wore a 
head-dress or turban, called a mitre (n^JJVD)- In 
the front was a small golden plate inscribed with 
the words, *' Holy unto God.^' Such were the holy 
garments of the high priests ; those of the common 
priests were simply white linen garments with a 
colored girdle. 



78 

CHAPTER IX 



XXXIX. TllE SIN OF NADAB AND ABIHlJ. 

One day, Moses, at the command of God, took 
Aaron and his sons and placed them before the 
assembled people. Then, in the presence of all the 
people, he put upon Aaron the robe and Ephod,^nd 
girded him with the belt of the Ephod. He also 
put upon him the breast-plate and the Urim and 
Thumim ; and upon his head he placed the holy 
mitre with its golden plate toward the front. 
Then Moses poured the oil of anointment upon 
the sanctuary and all that was therein ; he also 
anointed the beard of Aaron, then blessed Aaron 
and the sanctuary, declared the latter sacred 
unto God, and Aaron and his descendants ever 
after, devoted to His service, the anointed of the 
Lord. 

They w^ere to conduct the services of the sanc- 
tuary, they had the care of all the holy vessels, 
to keep them pure and clean, ever read3^for service, 
and they offered up all the offerings of the people. 
All this they did in accordance with fixed rules and 
laws, laid down in the book of Leviticus, for the 
time of the service, the manner of the service, the 
garments of the priests, etc. And Aaron and the 
other priests did as Moses had commanded. But 
one day two sons of Aaron, named Nadab and 
Abihu,came before God with strange offerings and 
a strange manner of worship, and for their wicked- 
ness and presumption they were punished by God 



79 

with death. God also commanded Aaron and the 
rest of his sons not to weep for the two who had 
been killed, for they had been wicked and sinful, and 
the punishment which they had received ^was just 
and righteous. This tells us, that to-day, when 
wrong is done and committed, we should not sym- 
pathize or weep with the sinner and wrong-doers, 
nor try to shield them from punishment, for punish- 
mentand sorrow is ever the result of sinfulness, and 
reward and gladness that of goodness and virtue. 

o 

XL. KiBROTH llATAAVAH. 

The rest of the book of Leviticus is occupied 
with laws and statutes, governing the conduct 
and lives of the Israehtes, the kinds of offerings 
they had to bring, the times when these offerings 
were to be brought, and the manner in which they 
were to be sacrificed. Not wishing to burden you 
with this, which can have no interest and applica- 
tion to-day, we will pass over to the next book of 
Moses, the fourth book, called Numbers. It is 
called Numbers because therein is found the num- 
bering of the Children of Israel, that is, that Moses 
numbered them each according to his tribe ; each 
tribe had a certain banner or standard, and each 
tribe occupied a certain position on the march. 
For now they had begun to march through the 
desert to the land of Canaan which God had 
promised to give them, a beautiful land, a ^Hand 
flowing with milk and honey.'' On their march, 
too, they expected to be attacked by the different 



80 



nations through which they passed, and so they 
were put not only in marching order, but also in 
fighting order. 

But, notwithstanding all the good Moses did 
for them, and all the care he took of them, the 
people grumbled and were dissatisfied. We saw 
how they complained for food and God so miracu- 
lously supplied them wdth food by the manna. 
Now the foolish people had grown tired of the 
manna and cried out against Moses and against 
God, ^* they wanted meat to eat, they were tired 
of the manna, they remembered how they had had 
fish and meat to eat in Eg\^pt, and now they 
wanted meat to eat.'^ Poor Moses! at this new 
dissatisfaction of the people he knew not what to 
do. He turned to God and begged him to relieve 
him of the burdens of this people for they were too 
much to bear. But God answered, '^I will suppW 
them with meat.'^ And Moses was astounded and 
said, ^' Will flocks and herds be killed for them that 
they may have meat, or will all the fish in the sea 
be gathered together that they may eat?" God 
answered, ''Is My hand too short, or My power 
too little that I can do this ? Go thou unto the 
people and tell them they will have meat." Moses 
did as God had told him, and the people were 
quiet. That night God caused a strong wind to 
blow, and in the morning the people found about 
the camp countless numbers of quails. They greed- 
ily began to eat them, and God's anger became 
aroused against them, he sent among them a 



81 

plague. Many died because of their greediness 
and were buried there, so the place w^as called 
Kibroth Hataavah, ^^ graves of lust/^ because the 
people had lustfully craved for meat, and many 
had come to their graves because of their lust. 



XLI. AARON AND MIRIAM— THE SPIES. 

Not only did Moses have to suffer from the re- 
bellions of the people at large, bnt every single 
person went against him ; his own sister and 
brother, Miriam and Aaron, and (as we will learn 
later on) a man named Korach. 

Aaron and Miriam spoke against Moses because 
of his wife, that she was not an Israelitish woman. 
For, you remember, Moses had married Zipporah, 
the daughter of Jethro, the priest of Midian. 
They also said, ''Is it only with Moses that the 
Lord has spoken, has He not also spoken with 
us ?" God heard this, as He hears, sees and knows 
everything, and He commanded the three, Moses, 
Aaron and Miriam, to go unto the tabernacle. 
There appearing in a pillar of cloud. He said, "Now 
you will know that Moses is My true servant, 
that unto him I am seen face to face, while to other 
prophets I am seen only in a dream or in a vivsion.'' 
Then the cloud disappeared from the tabernacle, 
and when Aaron turned to Miriam, lo, she was 
leprous, white as snow. Aaron very humbly 
begged forgiveness of Moses and of God, and he 
and Moses prayed to God to heal Miriam. So He 
did, but Miriam had to stay outside of the camp 



82 



for seven days, for she was unclean because of the 
leprosy. 

After Miriam had become better, the people 
journeyed on until they came to the wilderness of 
Paran. They were now near the land of Canaan, 
near the good, rich land which God had promised 
to give to them. Moses gathered the people to- 
gether, picked out twelve men, one from each 
tribe,* and sent them to spy out the land, to see 
if it was rich and fertile, and if the Israelites could 
go up and take possession of it. The spies went 
into the land and they came to the valley Eschol. 
There everything grew large, rich, and abundant. 
They cut down from a branch a cluster of grapes 
and it had to be carried by two men, and they 
carried back with them other fruits. At the end 
of forty days they finished spying out the land 
and returned to the people to give their report. 

^^ Truly,'' said they, ^*it is a land flowing with 
milk and honey, as these fruits can testify, but 
(and here they added grievous falsehoods) the 
land is filled with giants, the children of Anak. 
They are so large that we look like grasshoppers 
by the side of them, and their cities are all large 
and strongly fortified. We are not able to go up 
against them, for they are stronger than we are.'' 
At this the people cried and wept aloud, ''Why 
have you brought us here in the wilderness to die? 

* The twelve tribes are: Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, 
Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Menassah, Dan, Asher, Naphtali 
and Gad. 



83 



Would it not have been better for us, our wives 
and our children to have died in Egypt than to 
come here and die by the sword in a strange 
country? '' But two men, who had been with the 
spies, Caleb, the son of Yephunneh, of the tribe of 
Judah, and Joshua, the sun of Nun, of the tribe of 
Ephraim, they alone tried to quiet the people, tell- 
ing them it was not so, that the people were no 
larger than ordinary and that they could go up 
and easily conquer the land. But the people would 
not listen to them and continued their cries. Then 
the anger of God was kindled, and He determined 
to punish the people one and all with fearful punish- 
ment. But Moses prayed to God in behalf of the 
people, saying that the nations of the earth would 
say that God had taken the Israelites out of 
Egypt, but was not able to bring them into the 
land of Canaan, as He had promised. Thereupon, 
God, for the sake of His faithful servant, Moses, 
punished the people with the punishment that 
none of those living now should live to enter the 
blessed land as He had promised ; they would be 
compelled to wander forty years in the desert till 
all those present would die and their children 
would then take possession of the land; except 
Joshua, the son of Nun, and Caleb, the son of 
Yephunneh, they only, because they told the truth, 
they would enter the promised land. So the Israe- 
lites were compelled to v^ander forty years in the 
desert and in the wilderness, because of their 
rebellion and want of faith in the Almighty. 



84 



XLII. THE REBELLION OF I^ORACH. 

When now the Israelites had begun their forty 
years* wanderings, they were very much displeased 
and grumbled a great deal. Especially one man 
of the tribe of Levi, named Korach, w^as loudest 
in his grumblings. 

He and two men, Dathan and Abiram, of the 
tribe of Reuben, together with about two hundred 
and fifty men, whom thej^ had gathered about 
them, came before Moses and said to him : ^^ You 
assume too m^uch, for the w^hole congregation is 
holy; the Lord is with them all, why do you place 
yourself above the rest? *' Moses answered Korach, 
''Is it too little for you that God has separated 
you and the tribe of Levi, to be sacred and holy 
unto Him, to stand before the congregation ? For 
this beware, both you and all your company, for 
ye have placed yourselves against God.*' Then he 
called for Dathan and Abiram, but they would not 
come up, and sent the answer back to Moses, ''Is 
it too little that you have brought us out of a 
goodly land here to the wilderness for us to die, 
and you wish to make yourself prince over us ? 
Moreover you have not brought us to the land of 
milk and honey which had been promised to us.'* 
At this Moses became very angry and said to Kor- 
ach, Dathan and Abiram, "To-morrow do you and 
all your company appear before the Lord, each man 
with his censer.** * The next day came and as the 

* A. censer was a small lamp used for burning incense. It 
^vas attached to chains and carried and s\Aaing" by the priests. 



85 

assembled people were standing before the taber- 
nacle, among them Korach and his company, a 
fire came down from heaven and consumed the 
company, while the earth opened and swallowed 
np Korach, Dathan, Abiram and the other leaders 
of the rebels. At this fearful sight of God's anger 
the people fled in terror, bnt as soon as they saw 
that all danger was over they murmured against 
Moses and Aaron, saying that they had caused the 
death of all these men. God then commanded 
Moses that he should take a staff from each tribe, 
the tribe of Levi included this time, thus making 
thirteen staves. Moses did so, and placed the 
thirteen staves at the door of the tabernacle. In 
the morning, when the people came to the taber- 
nacle, they saw that the staff of Aaron, ^svhich 
represented the tribe of Levi, had budded, blos- 
somed, and brought forth almonds, while the other 
staves had simply remained as they were. By 
this sign it was proven that Aaron was the true 

high priest. 

o 

XLIII- THE SMITING OF THE ROCK- 

After peace had been restored the people con- 
tinued to march on in the wilderness to spend the 
forty years which, in their blind iolly, they had 
brought upon themselves. They had not pro- 
ceeded far before their supply of water had given 
out; the water was gone from out their skin bot- 
tles, and so was the courage from their souls, and 
the satisfaction from their minds. They began to 



86 



scold and grumble once more. They raised their 
old cry, ^^ why had Moses brought them out here 
in the wilderness to die ! '^ They remembered how 
they had had enough to eat and drink in Kgypt, 
where the vine, the fig and pomegranate grew, but 
now Moses had brought them out in the desert, 
where nothing grew, there was no water, and they 
and their cattle must die. 

Again Moses turned to God for help, and God 
told him to gather the people together at a certain 
rock, there to speak to that rock and the water 
would come forth plentifully for all the people. 

Moses gathered the people as God had directed 
him, but instead of merely speaking to the rock, 
he smote it twice with his staff. The water gushed 
forth in an abundant stream. The people drank 
to their heart's content, and filled their bottles 
again with the precious fluid. I say precious, be- 
cause the water is truly precious, though it ma3^ 
seem hard for you to think so, you who have 
water around you all the time and as much as you 
want. But if you should ever be in such a position 
(but I hope you never will be), where water is 
scarce and hard to get, then realize what a truly 
precious thing it is, how sw^eet that clear, pure 
fluid is, that God has so kindly given to us, and in 
such abundance. 

Then again we can begin to realize the great 
mercy and goodness of God, when we think how 
mercifully He provided this life-giving fluid for 
those thousands of souls whom He in His infinite 



87 

kindness had taken from their slavery in Egypt, 
to give them a beautiful and fertile land, a land 
flowing with milk and honey. 

Here we have the first and only case where 
Moses, the kind, the patient Moses, did not follow 
out the exact letter of God^s command. God had 
told him only to sjjeak to the rock for the water 
to come forth, instead of that, Moses struck the 
rock twice with his staff. On account of this dis- 
obedience Moses was punished that he could not 
enter the holy land, but must die when the Israe- 
lites had finished their forty years^ wanderings. 

It may seem to be a great punishment for a light 

crime, but we must remember it was disobedience 

to God^s law, and it was more the principle of 

disobedience than any gravity of crime. How 

careful we must be then not to disobey any law of 

God, and we must constantly be on the watch, for 

it is so eas\^ to sin. 

o 

XLIV. THE SERPENT OF BRASS. 

Not long after their trouble with the water the 
Israelites were again sorely troubled. They were 
attacked b^^ serpents, for in their marching they 
came to a place where countless numbers of snakes 
were, and these went in among the people biting 
and poisoning many. The Israelites became great- 
ly frightened when, they saw so many of their 
number sick and dying; the3^ came to Moses beg- 
ging him to help them. Moses caused a brass ser- 
pent to be made, and put it at the top of a high 



88 . 

pole; all those that were bitten by the serpents 
were to pass under this brass figure of the serpent. 
They all did so. 

Those that looked upward as they passed were 
cured and saved, but those that kept their eyes 
fixed down sullenly on the ground remained un- 
cured, and died. 

The reason of this was that those who looked 
upward, looked up to, and put their faith and 
trust in God ; but those that kept their eyes fixed 
on the ground had lost all faith in Him and thus 
were punished by death, while the faithful and 
trusting ones were saved. 

How readily we can see that that applies to us 
to-day where it is so easy to be bitten by the ser- 
pent of sin, w^hich is ever low and earthly, and 
those that look upon it will suffer from it, while 
those that put all trust and faith in our Heavenly 
Father will escape from its snare. When you see 
temptation, look away from it, look up to God. 
Do not look down to it. You can not withstand 
it — get out of its way. 

o 

XLV. TllE W^ARS. 

Although all troubles and quarrels among them- 
selves were quieted and peace dwelt in the camp 
of the Israelites, yet they had to be on their guard, 
for they had now entered upon the last stages of 
their desert exile, and were rapidly approaching 
the boundaries of Palestine. But between them 
and that wished-for land of promise, there were 



89 



several idolatrous tribes, through whose land they 
must pass in order to reach their goal. 

Foremost among these were the Edomites^ the 
people who inhabited the country of Edom. This 
country lay directly south of Palestine, and just 
in the way of the Israelites, who came upon it 
first. When they had come to the boundaries of 
Edom, the people of Israel sent messengers into 
the land, begging permission to go through, and 
promising not to rob, injure or hurt anything 
belonging to the Edomites, but these messengers 
were harshly received and sent back with the an- 
swer that no permission would be given. 

At this th,e Israelites were angered, but remem- 
bering that the Edomites were related to them 
(they were the descendants of Esau, the brother of 
Jacob), they determined not to return evil for evil, 
and so turned out of their path, going to Mount 
Hor.* 

After journeying for some time they came upon 
the country of the Amorites, and Moses sent to 
Sihon, their king, the same request, namelj^, to be 
allowed to pass quietly through the land. Sihon 
refused, and not only refused, but also gathered 
together an immense army and came out to do 
battle against the people of Israel. But God was 
with the Israelites and they conquered Sihon, put 
him to death and took possession of his land. 

*It was here that Aaron died, aged one hundred and twen- 
ty-three years. He was greatly mourned for by the Israelites, 
and Eleazar, his son, became high priest in his stead. 



90 

Next they came upon the land of Bashan, of 
which Og was king. When he heard that the Isra- 
elites were approaching his country, he too, gath- 
ered together a large army and went to fight 
against them. But he also was conquered and his 
land taken possession of. So, with God on their 
side, the Israelites marched victoriously on toward 
the good land which was to be to them an inheri- 
tance forever. 

o 

XLVi. balaK and balaam- 

Leaving the land of Bashan they come next 
upon Moab. Balak, the King of Moab, heard of 
their approach, and knowing what they had done 
to the Amorites, and to the people of Bashan, he 
became greatly frightened. 

There lived in those times a man named Balaam, 
the son of Beor, and he was a great sorcerer and 
diviner. It was said of him that he could fortell 
the future, that he had power over the lives of 
animals and man, that whatever he cursed became 
accursed, and upon whatsoever he bestowed a 
blessing, upon that object came blessing, but with 
all his power he was nevertheless in the power of 
God, as we shall see. 

When Balak, the King of the Moabites, knew 
that the people of Israel were coming near to his 
land, he sent messengers, laden with presents, unto 
Balaam, the son of Beor, begging him to come 
and curse the Israelites, who were coming against 
him. But God had told Balaam he should not go, 



91 



and Balaam was compelled to say no to the mes- 
sengers. When they brought back this answer to 
Balak, he thought that he had not sent rich enough 
presents or noble enough men. So he, taking men 
of higher station and costlier presents, sent again 
to Balaam begging him to come and curse the 
Israelites. This time God told Balaam he might 
go, but could not say anything but what God put 
into his mouth. 

When Balak knew that Balaam was coming he 
went out to meet him, and taking him up to a 
high place, where he could overlook the whole 
camp of Israel, again begged him to curse the 
Israelites. Balaam requested that seven altars be 
built there and seven oxen slain upon them. This 
was done. Then Balaam began to curse the peo- 
ple of Israel, but his curse turned into a blessing. 
Balak was very angry, but took him to a second 
high place, but again he blessed them. Also a 
third time did his intended curse come forth a 
blessing. Balak angrily cried: ^'Did I not bring 
you here to curse this people of Israel, and lo ! you 
have blessed them these three times.'' Then an- 
swered Balaam: ^'How can I curse those whom 
God has not cursed?" And so it is, do your duty 
to God and to your fellow-beings and you can 
withstand the curses of all men. 

The Israelites then fought against Balak, con- 
quered him and took complete possession of his 
land. - 



92 



They had now come up to the very border of the 
promised land, in sight of it, the Jordan River only 
between them and it, for, going arotmd the land 
of Edom, they had come tip east of Palestine, in- 
stead of south of it, as they would have done had 
they gone through Edom. 



XLVII. DEATH OF MOSKS. 

Here the work of Moses was done. He was not 
to enter this holy land, and so he knew his end 
was near. He had been the faithful servant of 
God, had patiently and bravely borne with the 
fretful children of Israel during all their petty griev- 
ances and grumblings, had led them so gently 
under the guidance of the Almighty, during their 
forty years^ wandering, and, after countless trials 
and troubles had brought them safely to the 
threshold of their new home, into which they had 
only to step. His life's mission was over, his duty 
fulfilled, his charge nobly carried out. He assem- 
bled the people together for the last time, read 
before them the law of God, recounted to them all 
His infinite and tender mercies, and begged them 
to remember all this, to be grateful to God, 
always to worship Him, and forsake the worship 
of senseless, lifeless, motionless idols of clay and 
stone and wood. He took Joshua out from among 
the people, and placing upon him the charge and 
leadership of the people, he urged and exhorted 
them to ever obey him. 



93 

Having performed this, he bade farewell to the 
people who were standing around, in tearful 
silence, taking a last look at their great leader 
who was to leave them so soon. When his last 
duty was done, Moses turned and went to the 
summit of Mt. Nebo, slowly disappearing from 
the sight of the sorrowing people to whom he 
never again appeared. 

He died on Mt. Nebo, and no man knows his 
resting place. So there passed away the great, 
the good and kind Moses, the leader and lawgiver 
of our people, the servant and prophet of God. 




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